An Indiana woman is issuing a warning after being targeted by online scammers days after losing her husband.
Selena Bell was mourning the loss of her husband Tyrone, who served three tours in Iraq and received the Purple Heart, when she received a fraud alert via text message, CBS 2 in Chicago reports.
The widow says the message appeared to come from her bank, USAA, and she was instructed to call a number.
After hearing the famous USAA theme song, Bell spoke to a scammer who claimed to be an employee of the bank and convinced her to hand over sensitive banking information.
The bad actor then deposited a fraudulent check for $4,500 into Bell’s account, addressed to a “John Doe,” a check that USAA cashed.
Eventually, the scammer started sending money from Bell’s account to unknown people. Bell realized something was wrong when she discovered her balance was negative $5,034 the next day.
Bell says she suspects the scammers targeted her personally, knowing she was going through a difficult time.
“I really believe these scammers are going through obituaries and the like so they can take advantage of people.”
When the widow filed a police report, USAA, which had $110.88 billion in assets at the end of 2022, told her that “we have determined that the transaction is not fraudulent.”
However, after the story was covered by CBS 2 in Chicago, USAA reportedly contacted the widow and fully reinstated her account, saying she was not to blame for the incident.
The bank says it has “sophisticated fraud monitoring detection processes” but has not discussed how it allowed a “John Doe” check to be deposited into her account.
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