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A SINGLE mom has been left devastated after a scammer drained her life’s savings after claiming to be her bank in a terrifying call.
The imposter claimed to be a Wells Fargo representative in order to steal $19,000 from her victim’s personal checking and savings bank accounts – including the college savings account she had for her daughter.
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Ziamara Lopez, a paramedic who lives in New Jersey, said she panicked when she eventually realized that she was tricked.
“My heart dropped. I was in disbelief,” she told local ABC affiliate WABC.
Lopez received a call in May that showed a caller ID identifying the person on the end as someone with Wells Fargo Bank.
As a Wells Fargo customer, Lopez didn’t hesitate to answer.
“She was like ‘Hello, this is so and so from Wells Fargo. We noticed some fraudulent activity on your account,” Lopez recalled.
“‘Is there any way that you can check your account and tell me if the charges that you see on your account were made by you,'” Lopez said.
She said that the scammer texted and got codes from Lopez to go into her accounts and steal thousands of dollars.
The scheme became even more sinister when the imposter falsely claimed Wells Fargo teamed up with Uber for a collaboration.
The fake representative got Lopez’s address and sent a person posing as an Uber driver to the single mom’s house to inspect her debit card.
The scammer told Lopez that the bank needed her physical debit card for “forensic analysis.”
Once they had her card, they accessed the linked college funds that Lopez had put 18 years of “blood, sweat, tears and hard work” in for her daughter.
The criminals drained all of the accounts instantly, leaving Lopez in shock.
“I don’t even know how to explain it. It was like my heart just left my body,” she recalled.
“My stomach was at the pit. I just I just started crying. I was on the phone with Wells Fargo, and I’m like, ‘This can’t be real, right?’
“I’m like, ‘I don’t even understand what just happened. Like, I was on the phone with one of your guys, right?'” she said.
Wells Fargo reportedly refused to help Lopez because she had technically enabled the fraud when she thought she had been dealing with her bank.
Bank tips for avoiding scams
As scams become more sophisticated with the use of artificial intelligence, it is important you know how to spot a scam:
- Be skeptical of online deals that seem too good to be true, especially on social media.
- Scammers will often use tactics to make you panicked so you make quick decisions – be cautious if you are told to take immediate action and verify who has contacted you.
- Chase Bank warns customers to “never return any unexpected funds without calling Chase first.”
- Never send money to someone you have only spoken to online or by phone as this is likely a romance scam.
- Unless you 100% know who you are talking to, never give someone remote access to your device.
- Never accept help from strangers at an ATM and always be vigilant when making withdrawals.
- Do not send money or click any links indicating that you have won a prize.
Source: Chase.com
“They were basically saying, I’m not getting the money back,” Lopez told WABC.
The desperate paramedic then reached out to WABC for help, who asked the bank to revive Lopez’s account – which they eventually did in full.
“If it wasn’t for you guys, I wouldn’t have my money back. Thank you so much,” she told the outlet.
FBI WARNING
The same scam has affected Wells Fargo customers across the nation, even leading the FBI to share a warning about the scheme in August.
Dan Cusick, Wells Fargo’s Vice President of Fraud Prevention told WABC that the bank will never call its customers.
“Don’t trust caller ID,” Cusick told the outlet.
“We see that those numbers are spoofed quite often. Meaning, they are pretending to be from a trusted entity.
“It’s ok to [hang] up and call them back. There are numbers readily available online,” he said.
Victims should immediately contact their bank to get control of their accounts again if they’re scammed.
They should also change passwords and set up alerts for suspicious login attempts and transactions.
