A nurse from California was tricked into sending $1000 to a scammer posing as a Wells Fargo representative. The scam involved a compromised bank account and a request to send money through Zelle to "fix" the error on her "hacked" account.
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| Wells Fargo; credit: by Mike Mozart, CC BY DEED 2.0 |
TIME reported that 33-year-old Venessa Dikousman from Ceres, California was called by a man claiming to be from Wells Fargo to notify her that her bank account was being hacked. The man calling her cell phone was a scammer.
The number he called her from was the same as Wells Fargo's number, so it looked legitimate. The scammer was spoofing Wells Fargo to trick her into thinking he was a real employee.
Wells Fargo Scammer: 'You've Been Hacked. Send Money Using Zelle'
The man told her to fix the situation, she would need to "send $3,500 through Zelle to fix the breach."
Dikousman sent $1000 USD to the scammer and then realized that she was being scammed.
Dikousman reported the scam to Wells Fargo, and TIME reported that Wells Fargo "initially refused to refund the $1000 taken out of her account."
Financial institutions are not obligated to refund customers if they actually send their own money out to scammers, because this would not technically be "unauthorized."
It was about four months later that TIME contacted Wells Fargo to find out if they were going to refund her money. At that time, Wells Fargo decided to refund Dikousman the $1000.
Do You Think Wells Fargo Should Have Refunded Her Money Sooner?
Some people might wonder if Wells Fargo was going to refund her money if TIME had not contacted them.
What do you think? (Share your thoughts in the comments)
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