MEMPHIS, Tenn. — At age 72, Aurelia Costigan doesn’t do any online banking and rarely even shops online.
So, the Pittsburgh woman said when she got a phone call from someone claiming to be from her bank about supposed suspicious charges on her account, she believed him when he said that Zelle could be used to fix the problem.
“I had no idea what Zelle is, so I said well, what’s that?” said Costigan. “He said, it’s protection for your card.”
Zelle is really a way to send and receive money online.
Costigan said the man on the phone claimed he needed to verify her identity to correct the supposed fraudulent charges and he asked for her Social Security number.
“I didn’t think unusual of that due to the fact that I was talking to a bank representative. I thought I was,” said Costigan. “So, I gave him my social.”
A big part of the reason why Costigan trusted the person is that the number he was calling from matched the number on the back of her bank card.
It’s common tactic scammers use known as number spoofing.
Costigan said after the call ended, she went to a local bank to verify the suspicious charges had been fixed.
That’s when bank staff informed her that they never called her, and she realized it was all a scam.
Within hours, charges of around $1,800 popped up on her bank account.
“Being on Social Security, that’s the backup money that I’ve been saving for years,” said Costigan. “I was devastated.”
Luckily, Costigan was able to get help from…
