TJ Sneva earns a living making high-end skis and snowboards for adrenaline junkies out of his Spokane home.
But his business is now struggling after he fell victim to a spoofing scam. Sneva, the nephew of car racing great Tom Sneva, lost about $28,000 when he gave information to a scammer who was using a phone number that showed the caller identification from his own bank, JPMorgan Chase.
After realizing he’d been scammed from the texts and telephone conversations on Dec. 19, Sneva, 46, has worked for weeks with a local Chase branch manager and bank officials only to finish the process without any of his money.
Instead he’s received plenty of blame.
Sneva said he sat down with the local bank manager on Monday who had just finished a telephone conversation with other banking officials.
“He got off the line and said, ‘You are not getting this back,’ ” Sneva said.
The local branch manager told Sneva that in the bank’s eyes, Sneva pulled off the scam with his buddies and is trying to put in a claim to get the money back, Sneva said.
“I said, ‘You know that’s not true. As far as I see it, the bank took my money,’ ” Sneva said. “I’m like, ‘Why would I send my money out to try to recover it?’ ”
Attempts made Wednesday to reach the local branch manager and other local officials were unsuccessful.
One employee at the Chase branch on West Main Avenue said nobody there could discuss Sneva’s situation “due to privacy laws.”
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