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A scammer reportedly drained $27,000 in life savings from a man in Arizona by pretending to be his bank representative.
An Arizona resident who wants to only be identified as Dave tells the website Moneywise.com that he received a normal-looking fraud alert from Bank of America, which questioned whether he had authorized a $399 purchase at the electronics store Best Buy.
Dave responded, saying “no,” and then reportedly received a follow-up text from the scammer with a number to call. Someone claiming to be a Bank of America (BofA) representative then told Dave over the phone that his account had been compromised and that he was being targeted by a rogue BofA employee.
The con artist told Dave to withdraw his whole bank account to protect it, and then the scammer instructed him to “secure” the cash using Apple Wallet.
Dave was then walked through creating a scannable card on his phone that was linked to the scammer’s account. The Arizona man then deposited the cash in a bank drive-through, unwittingly transferring the money to a scammer.
“This is my life savings, and I don’t have any assurances, but they sounded so real.”
Peoria Police Department Detective Michael Finney worked with Dave and froze the linked accounts, managing to recover roughly 90% of his funds in five months.
