Please Beware of Scams! Stimulus Checks Start Rolling Out Across the Country

Unfortunately, we live in a reality where people will use a crisis as an opportunity to trick people out of their money. Please be wary of scams surrounding stimulus checks and other financial services. Only trust information that has come from reliable, official sources. The Federal Trade Commission is a great resource to help you spot scams — learn more here.

If you did not file 2018 or 2019 tax returns and do not receive retirement or disability insurance benefits from Social Security, you can now receive your Economic Impact Payment by using a new IRS portal. To find out if you are eligible and access the portal, click here. 

Most Americans will receive their payment automatically and don’t need to use this portal. If you are signed up for tax return auto deposits, your stimulus check will also be auto-deposited to your bank account.

Maine's Bureau of Financial Institutions warns public about online banking update scams: 

Maine's Bureau of Financial Institutions at the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation warns of a scam involving updates to financial institutions online banking platforms. The messages, typically sent to a consumers email address, appear to come from a consumers financial institution, claiming that the bank or credit union is updating its online banking platform and that the consumer needs to provide verification of account information. Read More

If a consumer suspects he or she has received a scam email, the consumer should:

• Not click through any links in the email. Clicking the link itself may expose the consumers personal information to scammers and harmful software.
• Never provide personal account information or other personal information in response to an e-mail, text, or call. A bank or credit union does not request personal account information in such a manner.
• Be on the lookout for suspicious links. Check the From header in any email received if the name of the author of the email does not match the authors email address, this is a sign of a potential scam attempt. Another way to check suspicious links is to hover the cursor over the link without clicking the link itself by doing this, the address for the link will appear on the consumers screen. If the link address shown on the screen is different from what the email says, this is a sign of a potential scam.

The Bureau of Financial Institutions has a consumer library with helpful information about how consumers can spot and avoid financial scams. Also, the Bureaus Consumer Outreach Specialist is available to answer any consumer questions related to financial scams or accounts in general. The Bureaus phone number is 207-624-8570. The website is https://www.maine.gov/pfr/financialinstitutions/index.shtml