Apple warns scammers are using FaceTime to steal bank account passwords — here's what to watch for

Say yes, and a stranger watches you log in to your bank account, passwords, one-time codes, all of it.

Apple is now warning customers about this scheme, CBS News reported. Scammers are impersonating bank representatives over FaceTime, then coaxing victims into screen-sharing sessions while they log into their accounts.

The warning lands weeks after the Federal Trade Commission said Americans reported losing $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, with bank impersonators driving the biggest share of business-impersonation losses.

How the scam plays out, step by step

The setup usually starts with a text. You get a message flagging suspicious activity on your bank or credit card, with a phone number to call. Other victims skip the text and get a call directly from someone claiming the bank needs to verify their identity.

Partway through, the caller switches the conversation from a regular audio call to FaceTime. A live video connection looks like proof that a real institution is on the other end.

Once on FaceTime, the scammer asks the victim to share their screen and log into their online banking — supposedly so the “representative” can confirm everything is secure. “The scammer watches in real-time while victims expose passwords” along with account numbers and one-time security codes, CBS News national consumer correspondent Ash-Har Quraishi said.

Those one-time codes are the prize. They’re the keys that let a fraudster approve transfers from a device you’ve never touched. Hand one over on a shared screen and you’ve done the hardest part of the theft for them.

Why scammers picked FaceTime

Apple told CBS that scammers picked FaceTime because people trust it. The app is a private line between friends and family, so a call coming through it carries a credibility a random 800 number never will. Fraudsters spent years spoofing caller ID for the same reason.

The FTC logged more than 1 million imposter-scam reports in 2025 — the top scam for the ninth year in a row, by the agency’s count — and total reported fraud losses hit roughly $16 billion, a record and about 25% above 2024. Business impersonators alone took nearly $1 billion, with fake bank employees responsible for the largest chunk. Government impersonators accounted for about $920 million more.

The agency has also flagged how these schemes have matured. “Really it’s becoming much more sophisticated than it has been in the past,” Patty Hsue, chief of staff for the FTC’s Division of Marketing Practices, told CNBC in June. The misspelled robo-text that once gave scammers away has been replaced by patient scripts and a face on video.

The FTC says the costliest of these schemes follow the same opening move as the FaceTime version: a fake security alert, dressed up as a message from a bank, warning that your money is in danger. Once a victim believes that, the loss runs as deep as the account. If you keep $8,000 in checking, the scam’s ceiling is $8,000.

The red flags Apple wants you to catch

Never share your screen with anyone who contacts you out of the blue, no matter how official they sound. Apple says it will never ask for your password, passcode or two-factor authentication code, and neither will your bank. It helps to remember that FaceTime screen sharing only starts when you tap to allow it, so the scam stalls the moment you decline.

Urgency is another giveaway. A caller pressuring you to move money right now, before your account gets “frozen” or “compromised,” is running a script designed to keep you from thinking. Hang up and call your bank yourself.

The FTC’s guidance runs in the same direction. In the costliest versions of these scams, the agency says, victims are talked into moving money to “protect” it — and no legitimate bank or government agency will ever ask you to do that.