WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — A local woman is warning others to beware of an elaborate bank scam hitting many people across the nation including herself.
Lesli Price said she never imagined she’d fall victim to any kind of scam but that a new bank scam involving the money transfer app Zelle and chase can trick even the smartest of us.
“I received multiple 1-800 calls on Wednesday evening on the 15th of December and it was just one right after the other and at that time I checked my phone and I had a voicemail so I started listening to the voicemail and it said that it was chase business fraud,” Price said.
That’s when the caller asked her if she recently authorized a Zelle payment in the amount of $5000, Price who hadn’t done the transaction told him that it wasn’t her and that’s when the scammer struck.
“He said to reverse money back to yourself, you’ll need to reverse these charges and pull it back to yourself, and I said okay and he walked me through he had me put in my telephone number, my name, and type in Zelle reversal and so at that time it was for $5000 in that moment,” Price said.
And five thousand dollars quickly turned into much more.
“This went on Wednesday night, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday so a total of $25,000,” Price said. “Sunday evening I noticed my account was locked again so I called chase to unlock it, that’s when Chase informed me that I had been scammed.”
It was at that moment Price said she began contacting agencies like the Better Business Bureau, and President of our local BBB, Monica Horton, says this scam is more common than you think.
“This is basically what we call the impostor scam and the scammers love to impersonate banks and what they will do is send text messages, emails, or even call you and the number could appear to be the actual bank’s number that’s called spoofing,” Horton said.
And Price said aside from having the same number as the bank the caller even had the same hold music Chase uses as well as the same verbiage, which is another reason she felt so sure it was Chase.
“It was devastating I mean I was amazed that you know, this kind of thing is happening and from what I’ve heard it’s a huge scam,” Price said.
And it’s a scam Horton said everyone needs to watch out for.
“The bottom line with this particular scam is if you receive an unsolicited message whether it be text message phone call or email and it appears to be from your bank don’t respond to that communication,” Horton said.
Price said currently Chase Bank nor Zelle is claiming any responsibility for her falling victim to the scam, and it’s now something she has to deal with.
“It’s very scary. I don’t care if it’s one hundred dollars or what I lost at the 25,000, when it’s your money and someone’s taking it it’s very sad,” Price said.
And it’s something Price hopes doesn’t happen to anybody else while she is still in the process of trying to recover her lost funds.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, you can contact the Better Business Bureau by calling them at (940) 691-1172.
