This story below highlights just how vulnerable all consumers can be even if you are familiar with the issue at hand. This CBS reporter feels very fortunate to not lose his life savings and felt it is important to warn others who may be duped by a professional scammer who is very good at removing your money from you if you are not extremely cautious and may well have other supports to help you avoid losing your money.
One of his bottom lines which banks should be automatically doing in their duties to protect customers is to recognize red flags and then reexamine your situation to understand you may well be under the evil influence of a fraudster.
CBS News' Matt Gutman nearly loses life savings in ‘sophisticated’ phone scam
Story by Denette Wilford
Matt Gutman attends the 19th Annual Stand Up For Heroes Benefit Presented By Bob Woodruff Foundation And New York Comedy Festival at David Geffen Hall on November 10, 2025 in New York City. Photo by Jamie McCarthy /Getty Images for Bob Woodruff Foundation
CBS News chief correspondent Matt Gutman revealed how he came very close to losing his savings after falling for an “incredibly sophisticated” phone scam.
Gutman, 48, shared a video on X on Friday, explaining how he considers himself “savvy” and has worked on many scam stories throughout his career — yet he almost lost everything in his bank account.
“This person gave me a name, they gave me a badge ID. They seemed to know so much about me, about my bank account,” the journalist detailed.
“And then they said, ‘Listen, we suspect there is significant fraud activity at the bank branch where you bank and what we need you to do right now,’” Gutman continued.
“We went through all of the accounts and we actually had had some suspicious activity recently in my daughter’s account,” he said in the clip.
The woman on the phone went on to share that there were two suspected fraudsters at his bank, even giving Gutman two names.
Something felt off
Gutman’s internal radar went off when the caller suggested a plan to catch the “criminals.”
“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,” she told Gutman, who said it didn’t contain “that much money” — though, for many, that’s subjective.
She continued: “Take it with you so you have it in cash and that’ll trigger the fraudsters into action, that’s how we will be able to catch them.”
The reporter thought it was “a little weird” for his bank to ask one of its clients to try to suss out the scammers rather than get law enforcement involved — but he still went to his bank branch.
She then instructed Gutman not to inform any bank employees about the plan because “they might be in on it” — which was the CBS News anchor’s final red flag.
“So I go to the teller and I start doing the thing and I’m like, there is no way this is possibly real, that anybody would use a regular civilian for a sting operation at a bank.”
What could have happened?
He continued: “Now, the most scary and the dangerous part is that I would’ve 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.”
Gutman went on to say this kind of scam happens “all the time,” where, in most cases, the fraudsters will either “rob your car or they rob you.”
He called it a “very scary experience” as he warned others to be careful before thanking the Los Angeles Police Department and staff at Bank of America for their help in averting “a potentially dangerous disaster.”
The former ABC News star noted: “Some of these scams are incredibly sophisticated, with people who clearly know what they are talking about and speak like they are in the profession.
He added: “I am just blown away by how good that person was, I can’t get over this.”
