A Dallas woman recently lost $12,000 to a scammer who impersonated a Chase Bank representative.
The victim, Anna Kate, said the caller knew her security questions and answers, her last transaction, the last time she had visited an ATM and her account balance to the penny. The scammer also used the same script used by real Chase Bank employees, she said.
“Looking back there were red flags, but it all happened so fast,” Anna Kate said.
Her case is similar to a recent one in Chicago in which a woman, Monika Jedrzejek, lost almost $25,000 to a scammer who sent her a text message that appeared to be from a real Chase Bank phone number, CBS 2 reported.
William Smarr, special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service Dallas field office, said the holidays typically see an increase in scams. In 2021, losses from reported fraud totaled more than $5.8 billion, a 70% increase from 2020, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Chase and Smarr provided the following advice on how customers can avoid becoming the next victim of scammers:
1. Never share your banking password.
2. Never send money or buy gift cards or cryptocurrencies for bank agents. Even if someone tells you that doing so will prevent fraud or avoid a service interruption on your account, don’t do it. Bank employees won’t ask consumers to do this, but scammers will. Bank employees also won’t ask customers to screen share their mobile device or…
