Money is now being drained from customer’s accounts due to banks failing to protect its users, several reports allege.
A couple have been left furious, claiming their bank failed to protect their savings.
California husband and wife, Ron and Jan Scott, lost thousands in savings after hackers infiltrated their Wells Fargo bank accounts.
According to Scott, one of their email passwords was hacked and scammers used that to log into their bank account, reported CBS 8.
“Once they hacked our email name and our password, they were able to go directly into our account and start working on it,” said Ron.
The thieves targeted the couple’s business and personal accounts, trying to be slick about their operation.
In total, $50,000 in fraudulent withdrawal transactions were initiated from the account.
The Scotts maintain that the bank should have required additional verification for such a large sum of money to be withdrawn.
They first became keen on the scam in January when Jan called Scott to question him about a $19,000 withdrawal.
“I said, it’s got to be some kind of a glitch in the system. It’s got to be a mistake,” said Scott.
Upon further investigation, they noticed the transactions, some successful and others thwarted, withdrawing a total of $50,000 from their accounts.
The $19,000 withdrawal was part of a series of fraudulent transfers from Jan’s personal accounts to Ron’s business account.
Likely in an attempt to circumvent any internal system alarms, the thieves then attempted to withdraw $25,000 from the business account twice.
Ron explained that the bank stopped $20,000 worth of the transactions from going through, but to him, that was not the bank completing their due diligence.
“If you have that many accounts, where large withdrawals are made instantaneously, the system should be refusing all of them,” he said.
To add insult to injury, the couple also was charged $1,184 in bank fees related to the fraud incident.
The San Diego Sheriff’s Department investigated the theft independently from the bank.
“The Sheriff’s department was very, very good and thorough in what they did,” said Scott.
They found that the withdrawals were set up to be funneled into another Wells Fargo business account linked to Hydra Communications LTD in Pennsylvania.
While Ron agrees that he and Jan should have better passwords and focus on their security, he still places the blame on Wells Fargo, reports The-Sun.
The couple is trying to file with the bank’s fraud department to have their $30,000 reimbursed.
But despite the couple’s best efforts, they claim that the bank has refused to reimburse their funds.
Emails between the Scotts and Wells Fargo show that their claim is being denied because the withdrawals were done through a ‘secure’ site.
The couple has boosted their account security but is still hoping to have their money returned.
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A banker is now convicted for stealing money from customers while working at Bank of America over a 10-year period.
The personal banker was arrested after her years-long scam, resulting in nearly $300,000 being stolen, came to light.
Police in Seneca, South Carolina said they received a report in 2013 about missing money from an account with Bank of America.
The victim, who also reported the incident to the Customer Service department, told police he was missing around $30,000.
Investigators worked with Bank of America for several weeks after the crime was reported and learned that an employee who had been stealing money from several people in Oconee County.
The police said the victims would use the Bank of America location in Seneca as their primary bank and Bobbi Cortese was their personal banker.
Seneca Police investigators and the US Secret Service spent nearly a decade doing more interviews.
Meanwhile, Bank of America was given time to complete an internal investigation.
It was revealed that Cortese had stolen nearly $300,000 from four people while working at the bank.
Some of the money was in the victims’ bank accounts for life insurance payouts related to the deaths of their spouses.
Others had a lifetime of earnings that was supposed to be used for their retirement, said police.
Cortese would open accounts under the victims’ names without their knowledge or consent and would perform a “shell game.”
This is when a scammer uses the money from one victim to replace what she stole from another victim.
After investigating further, police said Cortese forged several documents and issued them to the victims to hide the theft.
She committed these acts for about four years while working at the Bank of America, said police.
Cortese was arrested in May 2023 and charged with four counts of breach of trust and two counts of forgery.
She was later fired by the bank, reports The-Sun.
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