A familiar voice. An email that looks like it came from your bank. A convincing video featuring someone you recognize. As criminals adopt increasingly sophisticated technology, fraud's warning signs are becoming harder to spot.

The numbers underscore the challenge. In 2025, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 1 million complaints, with reported losses reaching $20.9 billion. Adults age 60 and older reported approximately $7.7 billion in losses. Separately, Javelin and Associates reported a 37% increase in the suspected digital account takeover fraud rate from 2024 to 2025.

For community banks, these trends reinforce the value of combining customer education with identity-protection services that help detect issues and support recovery.

Criminals can use artificial intelligence to write polished messages, clone voices, and create realistic videos. These tools make it easier to impersonate trusted businesses, financial institutions, and family members. Encourage customers to independently verify unexpected requests using a known phone number, especially when someone requests money, account access, or sensitive information.

A data breach’s impact does not end when the headlines fade. Criminals can circulate exposed Social Security numbers, birth dates, passwords, and account credentials and reuse them over time. Customers should treat a breach notification as a reason to act and stay alert.

Scammers impersonating banks, government agencies, employers, or relatives may use stolen personal information to appear credible. Their goal may be an immediate payment, or information that enables future fraud. Knowing a customer’s name, address, or other personal details does not establish that a caller or message is legitimate.

Government impersonation, investment schemes and fraudulent technical support offers can have devastating consequences for older customers. Accessible education, conversations with trusted family members, and clear instructions for contacting the bank can help customers recognize suspicious requests before acting.

No identity theft service can prevent every incident. A strong program should combine monitoring with meaningful assistance when something goes wrong.

Look for specialists who actively help manage the recovery process, including working with creditors and other organizations as authorized. Understand whether the service performs restoration tasks or primarily provides instructions for customers to follow themselves.

Monitoring Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion can help identify suspicious credit activity that may appear at one bureau before another. It is an important layer of protection, though it doesn't detect every form of identity theft.

These services can alert customers when monitored personal information appears in sources the provider scans. Alerts can prompt password changes and other protective steps, but coverage varies, and monitoring cannot find every exposure or always determine how information was stolen.

Depending on the program, additional services may monitor address changes, identity records, or signs of misuse involving a minor’s information. These features help broaden protection beyond traditional credit accounts.

Community banks can make identity protection part of ongoing conversations with customers. Encourage customers to use unique passwords, enable multifactor authentication, review account alerts, and promptly report suspicious activity.

Pairing practical education with monitoring and hands-on restoration support can help customers respond sooner, and give them a clearer path forward if identity theft occurs.

Review your bank’s identity protection offering today. Does it provide the monitoring, education, and recovery assistance your customers need?