How do I best explain to identity thieves why what they're doing is terrible?

I work nights for a bank in customer services, so a number of calls come from people that are or have previously become victims of identity theft and financial crime. One thing that surprised me is the number of 'regular' customers we have at night. During the daytime thousands of people call the bank and will get through to one of hundreds of different advisors, during the night we're a small team handelling a small number of calls so you get to know the people that call during that time of night. I'd say 20% of calls in the nighttime are from elderly, vulnerable and sick people who are scared from having been targeted by fraudsters in the past. It's very rare in a call centre to get to know regular customers.

I know fraudsters target everyone but these are the people that I've spoken to that are hit hardest by it long term. They can't comprehend the modern tricks and technology fraudsters use to gain their info, which makes them very paranoid and scared that someone's out to take their money at every turn.

Imagine a person alone in their 80s or 90s, no nearby family, seeing their life savings taken. Or their accounts are frozen, and they are told they need to travel to a branch just so they can get their God damn pension out to feed themselves whilst the fraud team investigate how someone's managed to take out a credit card in their name etc. The fear that they dare not answer the phone because they think its fraudsters again. The paranoia, that means they're calling the bank most nights at 3am, just to make sure their money is safe. They're not confident to use online banking, and don't really understand technology or how someone's managed to get their info.

There have also been a handful of cases where people have been tricked into handing out PIN numbers and passwords. This means they can be left liable for losses, because it's their fault.

Also, another thing we see is when their a large data hacks in the press, other fraudsters not related to the cyber attack will use this as an opportunity to pose as banks and police and cold call unwitting people saying 'you were one of the people who's identity has been compromised, to protect your funds we need to transfer them to a different bank account', the person gives them the info required to do that, that's just one example. The original fraudsters that carried out the attack might only be doing so with the intent of hurting a large organisation. But other fraudsters will use that for their own gain which can definitely hurt individuals.

Of course there's so many different examples, and there have been times when fraudsters have called in posing as customers. In theory if a fraudster spoke to me and managed to transact on a customers account or managed to open a credit card or loan in their name, I could also become a victim. It could impact my career, get me fired or I could even have legal proceedings against me if the bank suffered a loss because I couldn't spot a fraudulent caller, and they felt I should have. Telephone fraud is a more specific area though.

/r/personalfinance Thread