California Nurse Lost $1,000 to Zelle Scammer, but Wells Fargo Refunded Her About 4 Months Later

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. 

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)

Maryland Woman Loses $17K from her Bank of America Account After a Crook Goes into a Verizon Store w/ Her Phone Number & Gets a SIM Card

A Maryland woman was scammed out of $17,000 in her Bank of America bank account after a scammer walked into a California Verizon store with her phone number and obtained a SIM card for her account, shutting off her phone. Then the scammer steals $17K from her Bank of America bank account.

Verizon Wireless store

Scammers continue to find new ways to steal money from hard-working people, even when a person has two-factor authentication on an account.

A Maryland woman learns that even with two-factor authentication, a criminal still accessed her account and took $17K from her with a SIM card swap.

Details on what happened are below.

A Scammer Walks into a Verizon Store with a Woman's Phone Number

7News reported on Wednesday that Sharon Hussey from Maryland was "stunned" after a criminal took control of her account after walking into a California Verizon store with her phone number.

The crook then changed her Bank of America contact information "within minutes" and then took $17,000 from her bank account, even though she had two-factor authentication enabled.

She said:

"I don't know what kind of story they told them, but they bought a new phone, gave them my phone number and were issued a new SIM card, and with that SIM card they can take over everything. I don't know if the could access my banking apps. I don't know what immediate access they had...they could change my Verizon account information, they changed my password, they changed another phone number that was on there, and then they went into Bank of America, and now that they have this phone with my control, they were able to make a sizable withdrawal and when they were sent a code to the phone, they had it." -Sharon Hussey, Verizon customer

 She said:

"It was absolutely stunning. My heart dropped to the floor...and the bottom just kind of dropped out." -Sharon Hussey, Verizon customer

When a new SIM card was issued in California, the SIM card in her cellphone no longer worked, and should could no longer get a verification code to her phone, because the scammer was now using her phone number.

She needed to contact Verizon about her phone issues, but when she called Bank of America, she found out that $17,000 had been removed from her account.

She said:

"Initially, I didn't realize how big of a deal it was. I thought I had handled it on the first day by calling the bank, calling Verizon. Figuring things out.” -Sharon Hussey, Verizon customer

Hussey says that the "two-factor authentication" in her particular situation didn't help her.

She said:

"And I have two-factor identification which ended up biting me in the face when it all came down to it. That was the thing that completely hijacked everything. They had complete control of my phone and there was nothing I could do about it." -Sharon Hussey, Verizon customer

7News revealed that the scammer in this situation used two-factor authentication via receiving a text code to access accounts that have this feature enabled.

That's how the scammer gained access to Sharon Hussey's bank account.

In the video below on X.com (formerly Twitter) Sharon explains what happened.

Update to this Story: 24 January 2024

7News reported that Bank of America initially denied her claim for her $17K loss "over the next three months," but did reverse its decision, and decided to refund the money that was stolen from Sharon Hussey's account.

Thoughts

Now it is time for the reader to share your thoughts on the story.

• Did you know this type of SIM scam existed?
• What would you do if someone stole your phone number?
• Do you use two-factor authentication to protect your accounts?

Please help others stay informed about this story by sharing this article on social media.

Sources

Scott Taylor's account on X.com (formerly Twitter): @ScottTaylorTV

Sharon Hussey on Facebook.

Taylor, Scott. "Maryland woman loses $17K in SIM card swap scam despite two-factor authentication." WJLA 7News. 24 January 2024.

Bank of America's website.

Verizon's website.

$6,800 Taken from California Woman's Wells Fargo Bank Account Days After Receiving Fraudulent Phone Call

 In August 2023, Nadwa Perket received a phone call claiming to be from Wells Fargo. Days later, $6,800 was taken from her bank account and sent to Florida.

Wells Fargo bank (stock photo) by Mike Mozart; CC BY 2.0 DEED

A woman in her 60s from San Diego lost $6,800 from her Wells Fargo bank account after being tricked by a scammer who pretended to be a Wells Fargo bank employee. Nadwa Perket said she felt betrayed by the bank, which refused to reimburse her money.

California Woman Receives Scam Call and Loses Money from Bank Account

The U.S. Sun reported that Nadwa Perket from San Diego received a phone call in August 2023 from a man who claimed to be from the Wells Fargo fraud team. He told her that someone had tried to wire money to an account in Florida and that he needed to add extra security layers to her bank account.

Perket said the caller sounded very professional and convincing. She did not give him her password or username, but she did provide him with some personal information and a one-time access code that he requested.

A few days later, she got a notification on her phone that her account balance was low. She checked her account and found out that $6,800 had been withdrawn from her account.

Perket contacted Wells Fargo and reported the fraud, but the bank told her that "she had authorized the transaction" and that they would not refund her money. She said she was "shocked and angry that the bank did not protect her as a client."

She said:

"It didn't look fishy to them." -Nadwa Perket

She said she then had to borrow money just to pay her rent and that she felt like the bank did not care about her. 

Questions for the Readers

Now it is time for the reader to share your thoughts in the comments.

• Do you think that commercial banks care about their customers?
• Do you think they will take care of customers that are victims of fraud?
• Have you ever seen fraudulent charges on your debit or credit card?

Two California Residents Become Victims of Zelle 'Reverse Transaction' Scams in Bank Scams

Anyone can be a victim of a bank scam, and criminals continue to use the latest technology to pull off their scams. In these two stories, two California residents fall victim to the Zelle 'Reverse Transaction' scam.

Photo by Jonas Leupe on Unsplash

ABC 7 News reported that in June 2022, a San Francisco man got the shock of his life when he discovered a scammer had just stolen money from him. It was so bad, he claims he suffered a panic attack from the ordeal.

California Man Becomes Victim in Zelle ‘Reverse Transaction’ Scam

Eduardo Carrascosa, from San Francisco, says he was busy at work when it happened. He received a call claiming to be a woman from ‘Bank of America.’

The woman posing as a Bank of America employee told Eduardo that scammers had hacked into his account and changed his Zelle account to send themselves money, which was indeed what had happened.

Eduardo said to her:

“No, that’s not me, go ahead and cancel it. Let me get back to my work.” -Eduardo Carrascosa, scam victim (Source: ABC 7 News)

The woman was insistent that if he didn’t reverse the charge himself, his money would be gone. So that’s what he did.

“So I started to, you know, red flags. So, I googled the number that was calling me.” -Eduardo Carrascosa, scam victim (Source: ABC 7 News)

His internet search results showed that it was a Bank of America number.

Then, a man got on the phone, claiming to be the woman’s supervisor. Carrascosa questioned the man to find out if they were really from Bank of America.

“I thought I was outsmarting them.I usually don’t make customer service reps answer all those questions but I was suspicious.” -Eduardo Carrascosa, scam victim (Source: ABC 7 News)

Yet the man answered his questions correctly, except the question about how long he had been a customer of Bank of America.

“He knew my debit card number, my checking account number, cellphone number, address.” -Eduardo Carrascosa, scam victim (Source: ABC 7 News)

Next, the man told Eduardo that a scammer had linked his cellphone number to their Zelle account, and to fix the problem, Eduardo just needed to go in and change the number back. It seemed simple enough.

“I was really suspicious and nervous. But at that point, I was already trapped…I was gonna do what they told me, you know.” -Eduardo Carrascosa, scam victim (Source: ABC 7 News)

Eduardo followed the instructions, entering his own name and cellphone number as a recipient in his own Zelle account, so he could then send the $3,500 back to himself.

Eduardo followed the directions of the scammer, first sending $2,500 to himself, and then another $1,000 to himself. The funds left his bank account.

He later learned that the scammer had changed their account name and phone number to his. He was not actually reversing a scam transaction as they explained to him. He was actually sending his money to a scammer that took his identity on their account in order to steal his money.

Eduardo Carrascosa filed a claim with Bank of America about his lost $3,500, which he needs for daily living expenses in San Francisco, but it is unlikely his money will be recovered.

(Source: ABC 7 News)

In the next story, a California woman receives a text and call pretending to be from her bank notifying her of a $3,500 Zelle transaction. It was not her bank. It was a Zelle scammer ready to steal her money, and the story is very similar to what happened to Eduardo Carrascosa.

California Woman Receives a Text from 'Wells Fargo'

KSBW 8 News reported that on 25 February 2022, Melissa Anderson received a text message from an unrecognized number claiming to be “Wells Fargo” while on vacation. She had no idea she was being scammed.

Shortly after receiving the text message, she then received a phone call, and her caller ID read “Wells Fargo.”

“They asked if I authorized that charge, I immediately responded and said no. When I was on the phone with them, I Googled the number and it said it was a financial institute in Florida and with the amount of people working remotely, internationally, I assumed they are a financial institute so they are affiliated with the bank.” -Melissa Anderson, scam victim (Source: KSBW 8 News)

After she performing an internet search on the number, and learning it was a financial institute in Florida, she didn’t suspect anything strange. It seemed like her bank was being proactive to keep her safe.

“I’ve never been scammed in the past, I’ve been able to catch most of the things but this one, so many things added up to be real and legit.” -Melissa Anderson, scam victim (Source: KSBW 8 News)

The scammer explained to Melissa that there was a fraudulent transaction of $3,500 on her account through Zelle, and the only way to reverse that “pending” transaction, was to send $3,500 back to herself in Zelle.

Melissa told KSBW 8 News she “was in panic mode and did what was asked immediately.” In reality, she was handing her money over to the scammer with this action. What is even scarier, is that she didnt give the scammer any personal information.

She only entered her name, and that was it. The scammer had what they needed to complete the transaction.

“After I did that they immediately hung up on me 20:01:20 I called Wells Fargo right away and that’s when I realized it was indeed fraud.” -Melissa Anderson, scam victim (Source: KSBW 8 News)

Melissa Anderson is a little disappointed with the outcome of this situation. Wells Fargo did not cover or replace her lost money.

“Money’s tight for people right now. Inflation’s up. It’s just more of a reason your bank should have your back. it’s just more important to feel like your bank has your back and you’re protected right now because there they are getting really good at it, it’s really scary.” -Melissa Anderson, scam victim (Source: KSBW 8 News)

At the date of publication, Melissa Anderson had not recovered her $3,500 she lost in the Zelle scam.

(Source: KSBW 8 News)

Tip: With Fraud Alerts, Always Call Your Bank Directly

As a reminder, if you ever get a security alert text or call from anyone claiming to be from your bank, always call the publicly listed number for your bank and confirm that what you are seeing is correct.

They will verify if a fraud charge really posted to your account. Never assume that the person contacting you is a legitimate employee of your bank.

Sources

Ariana, Jaso. “Carmel woman scammed out of thousands of dollars.” KSBW 8 News. Updated: 11 March 2022.

Finney, Michael. “Bank of America customer loses thousands after being tricked by Zelle scammers with personal info.” ABC 7 News. 28 July 2022.