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)

Colorado Woman Sees Error on Computer Telling Her the Computer was Hacked. She Calls Number and Loses $37K

A woman from Westminster is alerted by warning messages on her computer that "her IP address has been hacked." It tells her to call a number and she is greeted by a person claiming to be from "Microsoft headquarters," who conspires to steal $37K from her in an "imposter scam."

photo credit: Microsoft logo (stock photo)Photo byMike Mozart; CC BY 2.0 DEED

According to the FTC data on the Consumer Sentinel Network, Americans lost more than $2.7 billion in "imposter scams" in 2023. These are scams where an unsuspecting person is duped by a scammer posing as an official or representative of a company.

A Colorado woman shared her recent experience with a scammer to try and warn others before it's too late.

Westminster Colorado Woman Believes 'Imposter Scammer'

KUSA 9News reported on Thursday that Diana Peltier from Westminster, Colorado received a troubling message on her computer, warning her that her "IP address had been hacked." The warning alert provided a phone number for her to call and looked very similar to the image on the screen below.

photo credit: Windows messagePhoto byKUSA 9News

She trusted the information on the screen and called the phone number where she was greeted by a man claiming to be from Microsoft headquarters, who sounded "calm and assuring," who told her "they were going to take care of her. They are going to be certain that I'm going to be OK."

The scammer told her to click on a link, which downloaded remote software onto her computer, which allowed him to take "complete control" over her computer.

That's when he told Peltier that he could "see her accounts were being hacked." He then offered to connect her to her bank's fraud department.

Peltier Was Transferred to 'Bank Fraud Department'

Peltier was transferred to a woman named "Allison with US Bank" who was soft-spoken and calming her down, telling her to "breathe," while continuing to emphasize her accounts were hacked.

Peltier was then instructed to go to her bank and withdraw her money from her "hacked" bank account and to deposit it into a "safe place" and the safest nearby place to deposit her money was the nearest Bitcoin ATM at a liquor store.

That's where Peltier deposited the $37,000 she removed from her bank account, just as she had been coached to do by scammers.

photo credit: Diana PeltierPhoto byKUSA 9News

She said:

"Within four hours, it was all over with. It was all gone." -Diane Peltier, Colorado scam victim

In hindsight she regrets it.

She said:

"I should have hung up with everybody. I should have unplugged the computer. I wasn't thinking right. I wasn't thinking right. I wasn't thinking clearly." -Diane Peltier, Colorado scam victim

Now, it is unlikely Peltier will ever see her money lost in this scam.

Always remember: Banks and officials will never ask for payment in gift cards or cryptocurrency.

Help protect friends and family by liking and sharing this article with others so they can be informed about this type of scam.

Sources

Federal Trade Commission: Consumer Sentinel Network.

Iacurci, Greg. "How to avoid the top scam of 2023: The internet has ‘really supercharged’ it, expert says." CNBC. 15 February 2024.

Staegar, Steve and Anna Hewson. "Colorado woman loses $37,000 in phantom hacker scam." KUSA 9News. 7 March 2024.

Equifax Hack Could Impact 143 Million U.S. Consumers

Equifax

1 of the 3 United States credit reporting services - Equifax - was hacked. The company says that they discovered the hack on July 29, 2017. They publicly disclosed that there was a data breach on August 29, 2017 - approximately one more later. Should we be concerned?

If you have credit and have a U.S. credit card, you may have some reason to be concerned. It is estimated that about 143 million people could be affected by this data breach. According to the Equifax website, they also accessed some UK and Canadian residents' information.

Hackers gained access to American Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, birth dates, credit card numbers, and addresses, among other user credit data stored by Equifax - such as credit history, past loans, and credit-worthiness.

Source: "What you need to know about the Equifax data breach" The Washington Post. Accessed: 9/9/17

This data breach is particularly troubling to Equifax, as it is supposed to keep credit data secure.

You may be asking one of the following questions:

• How do I know if my credit information was stolen from Equifax?
• How to find out if you're affected by the Equifax Hack?
• How to get free Equifax credit monitoring?

Find Out if Your Credit Information was Stolen by Hackers

Excellent question. I have an answer for you. Equifax has set up a website - according to The Washington Post article - the website is equifaxsecurity2017.com. I am not linking to it in this post, because it would go against the principles of this blog. I recommend that you verify yourself through Equifax, before using this website. This website should tell you if your data has been compromised in the latest data breach. I have independently verified that this website is working.

Please note before enrolling in Equifax free credit monitoring, you will be waiving your rights from any class action lawsuit against Equifax. This means you will lose any potential possibility of receiving a check from any lawsuit that arises against Equifax.

In checking with Snopes.com, there is a mixed answer if you are truly giving up your rights in a class action lawsuit.

Equifax Executives Quickly Sell $2 Million Equifax Company Stock

Three men have sold combined $2 Million of Equifax company stock, suggesting insider trading from knowledge received that Equifax had a data breach prior to this information being shared with the public (on August 1 & 2 in 2017)

According to the Snopes entry, these men were identified:

• Chief Financial Officer, John Gamble
• U.S. Information Solutions President, Joseph Loughran
• Workforce Solutions President, Rodolfo Ploder

This gives the impression of unethical business practices by these Equifax executives.