ARDSLEY, N.Y. — A Westchester County woman says she lost more than $30,000 to a sophisticated bank scam.
Since the summer, she says she has gone through the agonizing task of trying to get the money back. Experts told CBS2’s Lisa Rozner on Tuesday the scams are called “account takeovers” and in the last several months, the incidents have increased.
As the daughter of a retired NYPD cop who investigated fraud, Ardsley resident Denise Apostle says she was well aware of the warning signs of suspicious activity.
“I never thought anything like this would happen to me. My mom worked for Citibank for 27 years,” she said.
So when Apostle used her Citibank account to pay her bills online in July, she didn’t think anything of the message she received on what she thought was the bank’s website.
“It said your account has been compromised and to call this number, so I believed I was calling Citibank,” she said. “He had the same lingo when I usually speak to someone from Citibank, as well as he sent me Citi codes.”
The texts she received on July 6 with a Citi ID code looked almost identical to previous texts the real Citibank had sent her.
She was told to change her password.
The next day she received a voicemail from a Texas number that turned out to be Citibank’s fraud department. Even though she missed the call, she says 20 minutes later the entire savings she had for her daughters’ colleges and home bills was gone.
“Three savings accounts were zeroed out and…
