AI bank calls and the “hold your card to your phone” app

A recorded AI voice warns of suspicious activity: press 1. The “adviser” then asks you to install a security app and hold your bank card against your phone.

What it looks like

Phone call · Automated message · your bank

“Suspicious activity on your account. Press 1 to speak to an adviser.” — “To block your card, install our security app and hold the card against your phone.”

How it usually ends

The app read the card’s contactless chip and relayed it to an accomplice at a cash machine, who withdrew money without ever touching the card.

Red flags

A recorded warning, then a live “adviser”
Install an app during a call
Hold your card against your phone or share your PIN

A real case

Rotterdam police arrested two suspects in October 2026: AI-voiced bank calls, then an app that relayed victims’ contactless cards to cash machines — about 170 victims and €380k in three weeks.

What to do

Hang up and open your banking app yourself.
No bank asks you to install an app during a call or tap your card on your phone.
If you already did, call your bank on the number on your card right away.

Could you spot it in the moment?

In Painted Sky you’re born at random somewhere on Earth and live a whole life — and this scam is one of the fakes that can find you. Make the call yourself, then replay the same life with a lens that shows what was fake.

Play Painted Sky — free →