A RETIRED man has revealed how scammers robbed him and his wife of their life savings.
Posing as bank officials, the thieves convinced the 73-year-old Ohio resident to withdraw all his money and hand it over to them.
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It all began with a warning that appeared on his iPad.
“It just said I was compromised and I should get a hold of the bank right away,” the Mentor resident told Cleveland news site Fox 8.
He called the phone number on the warning and spoke to somebody he believed was a bank executive.
The scammer told him his account had been hacked and he needed to withdraw his money so it could be placed in another account.
Though he was skeptical at first, the thieves were convincing and he visited two banks to withdraw a total of $45,000.
The scammer had told him to say nothing so when bank employees asked him why he was withdrawing such a large amount of cash, he told them he was going to buy a car.
He told the news site: “He told me, ‘don’t say nothing to anybody or anything because somebody at the bank could be compromised, somebody could be going along with this or whatever, so don’t say nothing to them.’”
The victim was then persuaded to take the cash to a parking lot where he handed it over to a man posing as a bank executive.
Later, the scammers contacted him asking for more cash and he realized he had been duped.
He then filed a complaint with Mentor police and he hopes they will be able to use video surveillance footage to track down the man who pocketed his cash.
“I really hope he doesn’t scam anybody else. I hope he doesn’t get into anybody like this because this is just awful, this is terrible to do to somebody,” he said to Fox 8.
BANK TEXT SCAMS
Scams involving bogus bank officials are on the rise.
In 2023 the Federal Trade Commission revealed that bank impersonation is the most-reported text message scam.
It says $330 million were lost in text scams in 2022, more than double that of the previous year.
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
Last month The US Sun reported on the case of a 90-year-old man who lost $50,000 to a scammer he thought was from PayPal.
The victim, from Connecticut, received an email warning about a Bitcoin transaction.
After calling a fake customer service number he was convinced to transfer money to another account.
Unable to do so, he was then told to withdraw $49,900 in cash and hand it over to a courier who would come to his home.
The nonagenarian became suspicious and contacted the police. They arrested the scammer when he turned up.
And an 84-year-old woman in Massachusetts lost $20,000 to a scammer who tricked her into revealing details of her Bank of America account.
The thief, posing as a bank official, spent five hours manipulating the victim into revealing her private information.
