CBS news anchor nearly loses life savings in Los – Business News
A cellphone rip-off was so convincing that even veteran CBS News correspondent Matt Gutman admits he nearly walked into his bank and emptied his account earlier than realizing one thing was terribly mistaken.
In a video shared Friday on his X account, Gutman recounted receiving a call from somebody claiming to work in his bank’s “fraud protection” division.
The caller launched herself by title, offered a badge ID, and appeared to have detailed data of his personal banking data.
The dialog took a more alarming flip.
Matt Gutman joined CBS News as chief correspondent in 2026.
“They seemed to know so much about me, about my bank account,” Gutman stated. “And then they said, ‘Listen, we suspect that there is significant fraud activity at the bank branch where you bank, and what we need you to do right now–.’ We went through all the accounts, and we actually had some suspicious activity recently in my daughter’s account.”
The dialog took a more alarming flip when the caller outlined what she claimed was a plan to catch the criminals.
“She gave me the names and then she said, ‘What we need you to do, in order to intercept these fraudsters, is to go into the bank and withdraw everything from your bank account’ — which wasn’t that much money at this point — ‘and take it with you so you have it in cash and that’ll trigger the fraudsters into action. That’s how we’ll be able to catch them.’ I thought, OK, that’s a little weird.”
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“Why would you use a regular citizen for something that seems like a law enforcement issue? But I said, you know, OK, and I went in there and she said, ‘But you can’t tell anybody at the bank that this is happening because they might be in on it,’” he continued.
That ultimate instruction set off alarm bells.
The caller outlined what she claimed was a plan to catch the criminals.
Gutman stated the demand to keep bank staff in the darkish made him understand he was coping with scammers, regardless of how genuine the call had appeared.
“You’ve got to be so careful,” Gutman stated, “and some of these scams are incredibly sophisticated with people who clearly know what they are talking about, and speak like they are in the profession. I’m just blown away by how good that person was. I can’t get over this.”
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I simply received SCAMMED: a remarkably refined cellphone rip-off that nearly had me pull all the entirety of funds out of one bank account. Watch to see how it unfolded. And how harmful it’d probably have been. Huge shout out to the @lapdhq and the oldsters on the @bankofamerica… pic.twitter.com/y17xohZcBz— Matt Gutman (@CBSMATTGUTMAN) July 10, 2026
Gutman’s close call comes simply months after one other veteran TV journalist grew to become the sufferer of a pricey fraud scheme.
Former KSEE 24 news anchor Alex Delgado instructed Your Central Valley she misplaced $72,000 after being focused by scammers.
“I feel dumb, that I should have been smarter about it. I am in a very vulnerable place,” Delgado stated.
According to the report, Delgado obtained a suspicious textual content in March that appeared to return from the stock trading app Robinhood.The message claimed there had been suspicious exercise on her account and instructed her to call a cellphone quantity to report the problem.
The circumstances underscore how more and more refined digital scams have grow to be, with fraudsters utilizing convincing scripts and personal data to gain victims’ trust earlier than trying to steal their money.
Both the US federal authorities and the California State Legislature have enacted legal guidelines aimed toward investigating, prosecuting and disrupting cyber-scam networks.
