Anatomy of a Spoofed Bank Impersonation Scam

Bank impersonation scams inflict billions of dollars in losses on consumers annually, often exploiting telecom vulnerabilities to display spoofed caller ID information that tricks targets into trusting fraudulent calls. These imposter calls and texts are surging-up 124 percent from 2024 to 2025, according to our recent bank impersonation scam survey. Curbing this trend requires holding every entity along a call's path accountable, from origination to final delivery.

In a joint comment letter filed with the FCC earlier this week, BPI and cross-industry partners commended the Commission's forward-thinking regulatory proposals, including mandatory "Know Your Upstream Provider" rules and tightened caller ID attestation standards, and urged the FCC to adopt them swiftly to stop bad actors from traversing domestic networks. This latest filing builds on BPI's ongoing advocacy urging the Commission to enforce robust Know Your Customer safeguards for originating providers, strengthen overall call verification protocols and modernize Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules to preserve critical consumer fraud alerts.

The interactive graphic below is a simplified illustration of the anatomy of a spoofed call, mapping where bad actors often exploit network gaps and highlighting the key FCC fraud prevention measures and BPI-supported proposals to shut down these illicit pathways.

Learn More

• Hijacking Trust: How Scammers Exploit the Banking System's Most Valuable Asset
• Bank Impersonation Scam Survey Results
• What They Are Saying About Fraud and Scams
• Spoofing, Smishing and Deepfakes: To Stop Scams, Consumers Need Stronger Protections
• What Works, What Doesn't in the Global Fight Against Scams
• Fraud and Scam Prevention Playbook