An 80-year-old woman is suing Chase Bank after she fell for a crypto investment scam known as "pig butchering" that took over $720,000 of her life savings, and left her "struggling to pay her bills."
A Taiwanese immigrant and senior citizen with a disabled adult son had no idea she was being scammed, but this is how many "pig butchering" scams go.
A scammer gains the trust of an unsuspecting person and convinces them to send money or invest money in a scheme, and it ends with the victim losing all of their money.
This is what happened to one California woman who is now desperately suing Chase bank after losing over $720K to a scammer.
Los Angeles Woman Trusts Scammer and Loses Life Savings
KCAL-TV News reported that 80-year-old Alice Lin in Los Angeles thought that a man she met on WeChat would help her make money with cryptocurrency investing in a trading app. She didn't know the man and met him when he messaged her for the first time.
He gained her trust through an online friendship that started on WeChat.
He then convinced her to download a "trading app" and he convinced her to send her money, but she didn't realize it was not a real investing app.
She said:
“Then I was thinking, I can help my son, who is on disability. So, I thought, that would be good. That I can, you know, make a little bit of money.” -Alice Lin, Chase bank customer
Then over several weeks, he convinced her to wire over $720,000 to him. She went to her local Chase bank branches to wire "hundreds of thousands of dollars" over several days in August, and the total amount came to $721,500.
After he received the money, all communication from the scammer stopped.
It was a scam, and the returns on her money were too good to be true.
She said:
“He gave me the instructions and where to send the money to. So for me to go to the bank, to wire the money, and at that time, I totally trust him, so I just follow him.” -Alice Lin, Chase bank customer
CBS 4 News Miami reported that Lin was extremely depressed after she lost $720K, to the point that she felt suicidal.
With very little left in her bank account, she is now "trying to find comfort in the simple things in life," because the pig butchering scam stole her life savings.
Alice Lin is Suing Chase Bank After Losing $720K in Scam
Now, she holds Chase Bank at fault for allowing her to send her money to a scammer.
"Only if they had done a little something to protect elders like me from being scammed, I wouldn't be where I am now an 80-year-old widow left to pick up the pieces of my life." -Alice Lin, Chase bank customer
On Monday, 26 February 2024 Lin's attorney Anne Marie Murphy filed a complaint in the Los Angeles Superior Court, citing "red flags that Chase bank knew Ms. Lin was being scammed or definitely should have known."
Sources
Lopez, Lolita. "Grandmother loses life savings and sues bank." NBC 4 News. Updated 26 February 2024.
Sabir, Nadirah. "Woman, 80, loses $720,000 in savings due to crypto scam 'at my age, I do not have a second chance'." CBS 4 Miami. 6 March 2024.
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