There is no such thing as a "safe account"

Today's issue covers one thing: the "safe account" move, which may be the most expensive trick in banking.

It starts with a call or text that looks like it comes from your bank, or sometimes a government agency. "We've detected suspicious activity on your account." The caller is calm, professional, and helpful. They know your name. And they have a solution: your money needs to be moved to a protected account while they investigate. They will even help you do the transfer.

Here is the whole defense in one sentence: your money is never made safer by moving it. The account it sits in is already yours. The "safe account" belongs to the caller. Once you transfer, the money is gone, and because you authorized the transfer yourself, getting it back is genuinely hard.

Three things a real bank will never do:

1. Ask you to move money to keep it safe. Banks freeze suspicious activity on their side. They do not need your help relocating your balance.

2. Ask for your full password, PIN, or the code they just texted you. Those codes exist to stop the person on the phone. Reading one out loud hands over your account.

3. Ask you to install software so they can "help remotely." Any caller who wants you to download a program that lets them see or control your computer is reaching for your accounts, not fixing them.

If any call touches your money, use the callback rule: hang up, turn your bank card over, and call the number printed on it. Thirty seconds, and you're talking to the real bank.

Next Tuesday: is it still safe to put a check in the mail? Mostly yes, if you do three small things.