Despite reporting on countless scams and cases of fraud over the years, CBS News Chief Correspondent Matt Gutman says he just fell prey to a “remarkably sophisticated phone scam” that nearly emptied his bank account.
On July 10, 2026, Gutman shared his “very scary experience” in a social media video, admitting, “I’m not as savvy as I think I am.”
Matt Gutman Says ‘I Just Got Completely Scammed’ in Video Outside His Bank
Filming a selfie video outside his local Bank of America branch, Gutman told his followers how shaken he was about coming so close to going along with a scam that seemed legitimate, even to a seasoned investigative reporter.
Gutman, who left ABC News in December 2025 after 16 years there, began his video by admitting, “I just got completely scammed.”
“Got a call about an hour ago from someone claiming to be from fraud protection at my bank,” he explained. “And they said, ‘Listen, we think that people are trying to illegally withdraw money from your account.”
Gutman said the person on the phone gave him a name, a badge ID, and that “they seemed to know so much about me, about my bank account” and that they suspected “there was significant fraud activity at the bank branch where you bank.”
He continued to explain that they talked through his various accounts, noting that he “actually had had some suspicious activity recently in my daughter’s account.” The woman on the phone told Gutman that they believed two fraudsters were at his bank branch trying to access his money.
Gutman continued, “And then she said, ‘What we need you to do in order to intercept these fraudsters is to go into the bank and withdraw everything from your bank account,’ which wasn’t that much money at this point, ‘and take it with you so you have it in cash. And that’ll trigger the fraudsters into action. That’s how we’ll be able to catch them.”
Matt Gutman Says He Didn’t Realize He Was Being Scammed Until He Got to His Bank Branch
GettyGutman said he followed the caller’s instructions by going to his local branch, and only then did he have an inkling that he might be getting scammed.
He explained, “I go to the teller, and I start doing the thing, and I’m like, ‘There is no way that this is possibly real, that anybody would use a regular civilian for a sting operation at a bank.’ And I am a journalist, and I’ve done scam stories so many times throughout my career, and I came so close to falling for it.”
“Now, the most scary and the dangerous part,” he noted, “is that I would have been walking around with thousands of dollars in cash, at a place known to those scammers because they directed me to my local bank branch. And I was told that this happens all the time. And then they either rob your car or they rob you.”
In the comment section of his post, Gutman wrote on July 11, “Apparently it’s extremely common right now. Law-enforcement tells me I was the victim of some very impressive social engineering.”
Gutman’s comment section has been flooded with stories from people who’ve also been caught up in similar scams, and others expressing gratitude for exposing this particular scheme.
Multiple bank employees from across the U.S. weighed in, too, including one who wrote, “I’ve worked in the fraud department at Bank of America for 13 years they are very smart and study exactly what we say so they can do these types of scams. I tell customers all the time to always hang up, call the number on their card to be sure they are speaking with someone from the bank.”
I was scammed by the teller at first credit Union in Phoenix Arizona Devonshire branch. I asked teller to write on a piece paper my available amount,he did and I withdrawn the amount he written on paper,not knowing that my state IRS refund were deposited already in my account which that teller reframed to add to the amount he wrote on the paper, and the next day, I saw the date the state deposit my IRS refund which was 7 days before I saw the teller. The bank did a cover up.