In a matter of weeks, the NBC 5 Responds team heard from several North Texans who say they lost thousands of dollars when they believed they were responding to fraud alerts from their bank.
Read on to learn more about what happened and what you need to know to protect yourself.
“IT’S JUST VERY SCARY HOW QUICKLY YOUR MONEY CAN DISAPPEAR”
Jennifer Wade said she was on a playdate with her 5-year-old when she received a text that looked like a fraud alert from her bank.
“’Did you authorize a $2,000 transfer?’ I replied quickly, ‘no,’” said Wade.
Then, her phone rang. The caller said he was with Wade’s bank.
“I said, ‘How do I know this is correct?’” Wade recalled asking.
“He said, ‘Check the number on the back of your Wells Fargo card. It’s the same number.’ I just quickly glanced at it. Sure enough, it was the same. When I went back and looked there was one number difference,” Wade told NBC 5 Responds.
The caller convinced Wade a stranger had access to her account. The caller said Wade needed to move money out of her account using Zelle, a peer-to-peer payment service, owned by her bank and a consortium of six other large banks. It allows customers to send money instantly using an email address or phone number.
“I thought it was strange to move my money with Zelle, but it was within my own bank’s app. I thought it would be safe,” Wade said.
The caller told Wade to enter her own phone number and name as the recipient…
