USAA scams

1. 1

   Spoofed fraud-department calls

   A call from what appears to be USAA's published number reports suspicious activity. The caller already knows your name and often the last four of an account. Everything that follows is designed to get a code or a transfer.

2. 2

   Safe-account transfers

   You are told the account is compromised and the balance must be moved for protection. Because you initiate the transfer, it is authorised, and the recovery path is a recall attempt rather than a fraud claim.

3. 3

   One-time code capture

   The caller triggers a login or a payee addition and asks you to confirm the code "to verify your identity". Reading it out is the whole attack.

4. 4

   Insurance claim phishing

   After a genuine auto or property claim, an email or call offers to expedite the payout in exchange for bank details, or asks for a deductible up front. Neither is how a claim works.

• Anyone asks you to read back a code sent by text or email
• You are told to move money to a protected, safe or holding account
• A caller knows your rank, unit or duty station and uses it as proof of legitimacy
• You are asked to pay a deductible before a claim is released
• The caller discourages you from hanging up and calling 1-800-531-8722
• A message about your account arrives by text and asks for a reply
• You are asked to install screen-sharing or remote-access software

• Hang up and call USAA at 1-800-531-8722 or use the in-app call function.
• Never share a one-time code. USAA does not ask for them.
• Never move money at a caller's instruction, regardless of the reason given.
• Check the app — real alerts, holds and claim updates appear there.
• Report within hours if money left. A recall attempt is time-limited and it is the main chance.

Report unauthorised transfers the same day — Regulation E protections depend on prompt notice, and USAA can sometimes recall an outbound transfer within the first hours. Payments you were talked into making yourself are authorised and harder to recover, so the recall attempt is usually the real opportunity — with one exception: if it was a Zelle payment and the person who talked you into it was posing as USAA or a government agency, Zelle's network rules require participating banks to reimburse qualifying imposter scams. Ask for imposter-scam reimbursement by name. Ask USAA to lock the account, review added payees and devices, and re-issue cards. Service members can also place an active-duty alert with the credit bureaus, free, which adds verification requirements on new credit for a year.