Two JPMorgan Chase customers say the bank’s fraud prevention systems are woefully inadequate after $137,000 was withdrawn from their accounts in seconds.
Scott and Kate Zoll of Golden, Colorado say it all started with a text message that appeared to come from Chase asking if the couple had initiated a $4,500 wire transfer, Fox affiliate news station KDVR reported.
Scott immediately called his local Chase branch, which gave him the number for the company’s fraud department.
And after replying to the text with ‘N’, he immediately received a call from the exact number Chase had just given him.
But the call came from scammers who somehow knew the banking number of the Zolls’ business account and only needed a one-time PIN (OTP) from Scott’s phone. After he gave it to them, the account was cleared.
Now the couple wants to know why Chase is often quick to flag small debit card transactions as suspicious, but turns a blind eye when an entire bank account is emptied in a series of transfers to “random banks” in other countries.
“There were no warning signs that said, ‘Wow, these people’s personal accounts are being completely emptied and we’re sending three-fifths of this company’s money to these random banks…
You go to Mexico and Chase knows you don’t live in Mexico and flags you (when you use your debit card). But if you transfer money to Guam, can’t they tell you that sounds suspicious?’
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) can cover losses up to $250,000, but only if there is a bank failure, which most phishing scams do not qualify for because they require “authorization” from the account holder.
After weeks of back-and-forth frustration with Chase, Kate told Fox31 that they would get some of the money back, but not all of it.
“Just wake up and start all over again and try to accept that all our money is gone, and I don’t have much hope at this point in the journey that we’ll see any more of it.”
Chase released the following statement about the incident:
“Scams like this are heartbreaking. Beware of new contacts asking you for codes, access to your device, or to send money to yourself or someone else to avoid fraud. Chase, other banks, law enforcement and technology companies won’t ask you to do this, but scammers will. Like cash, wire transfers are final payments and, once sent, are rarely successfully recalled.”
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