From this week’s inbox: “My wife was a victim of a Bank of America and Zelle scam, we lost $6,800 and the bank told me that there’s nothing they can do. Is this true? It blows my mind that our money is gone just like that. Is there really nothing we can do.”
FINALLY, I thought, in April, when Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) demanded that banks tell the world how much fraud consumers are enduring because of their Zelle instant payment platform. Regular readers know I’ve been writing about Zelle crime for years, and my inbox is constantly full of notes from desperate consumers who can’t believe their banks don’t back them when something goes horribly wrong. Victims get hacked and their accounts get drained; others are deceived by near-perfect scams and initiate transfers under false pretenses. Bank customer service agents frequently tell victims they are simply out of luck, often in direct contraction to regulators’ guidance.
How often does this happen? All I know is how much email I get about it, and the constant cascade of local news stories about it. I’d know more but banks have never been forthcoming. That’s why I was so excited by Warren’s demand letter in late April.
Unfortunately, the banks chose to ignore this direct request from the U.S. Senate. So a series of bank…
