District attorney staff warn Monterey County residents about bank-impersonation scams and AI voice fraud

Emily Hickok of the District Attorney’s Office said scammers recently contacted a resident posing as bank officials, used the name of a real investigator found online and convinced the person to move funds. "They were posing as bank officials saying that there was fraud on the account. The account had to be closed. They had to come in and move money and this person believed them," Hickok said.

Hickok urged people contacted unexpectedly by someone demanding payment to ask for the caller’s name and title and then independently call the agency to verify the claim. "If it is a legitimate bank or business or governmental entity contacting you, they're not going to push back on giving you their name, their title," she said.

Investigator Justin Bell said early reporting is critical because funds are often moved quickly through multiple accounts, wired overseas or converted to cryptocurrency, making recovery unlikely if reporting is delayed. "The longer the money has been out of your account, it drops off very quickly the likelihood of any sort of recovery," Bell said.

Both speakers warned that caller ID, email headers and even short voice samples can be manipulated and that scammers increasingly use artificial intelligence to mimic voices. Hickok and Bell advised residents to hang up on high-pressure calls, verify contact information independently, and report incidents promptly to local police or the DA’s consumer protection unit. Bell recommended checking federal resources (FTC, IRS, FBI) for common scam patterns.

The District Attorney’s office offered no new enforcement action during the briefing; the segment served as public education and consumer-protection guidance.