THOMASVILLE, N.C. — Walter Bean was waiting for his wife at the doctor’s office. He was sitting in his car when the phone rang.
“They called me on her cell phone. She was in the doctor’s office. It was the bank and they said they had some fraudulent activity on your card,” Bean said. “We caught it, and we are going to stop it.”
The only problem is that it wasn't the bank calling, it was the scammer.
Bean was told the bank would need to send him a new debit card but before it could do that they were going to send him a code to verify his identity. What Bean didn’t know is that the scammer had already contacted the bank or hacked his account and requested a password change.
The passcode was sent to Bean, and he unknowingly sent that information to the scammer thinking it was the bank.
“That’s basically it. I gave them no other information, nothing,” Bean said.
He was told (by the scammer) the bank would shut the account down and not worry about fraudulent transactions.
Bean figured everything was fine until he received a call from a representative who really did work for the bank. Bean and his wife went to the local branch the next day.
“The banker said I’ve tracked the money down, here’s the money. Here’s who did it and this is how they did it,” Bean said.
The scammer withdrew more than $22,000 from two different accounts.
“It’s a sickening feeling, but it also makes you mad,” Bean said.
The money was set aside for the couple’s retirement. Both Bean and his wife are on a fixed income so that money was significant.
“It’s all we got,” Bean said.
The bank immediately opened an investigation and law enforcement officials were notified. Bean filed a formal complaint with the bank and asked that it refund his money.
The bank investigation took several months. Bean kept in contact with representatives and was eventually sent a letter after the investigation was over. The refund request was denied.
“They (the bank) are not accepting any liability for the loss of funds,” Bean said.
The bank determined that Bean was a party to the scam when he inadvertently provided the one-time PIN number to the scammer.
The PIN number allowed access to the money. The bank told us the text sent to Bean that he relayed to the scammer clearly states DO NOT provide this code to anyone.
The criminal investigation was also moving a bit slowly since the person suspected of the scam lived in a different state. The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI were involved in the case and an arrest was eventually made.
The suspect is a 23-year-old who was living in South Carolina. He was charged with two counts of identity theft and obtaining property through false pretense.
The arrest, however, did not come with a refund so, Bean was still out around $22,000.
“I looked online and (it) said [WFMY] News 2 would probably get you further than anyone so we called you,” Bean said.
After talking with Bean about what took place, we contacted the bank and spoke with a representative. We sent several emails back and forth during the next few months. Many of the emails included questions from us about how the suspect was able to access account information.
It's not exactly clear how much personal information the suspect found online or was able to get from a representative at the bank. It was, however, enough to get that one-time passcode sent.
In the end, the bank did not admit any fault or responsibility but did agree to refund about $18,000.
“The only result I got is after I called you,” Bean said. “When (the bank) called to tell me that it was a relief, I felt calmer.”
The representative we spoke with at the bank also provided tips to avoid being scammed.
Tips for consumers:
• Many scams use a variety of tricks to gain your trust and steal your money, but they often start with a simple call, email, or message impersonating a person or company you know to trick you into giving them your money.
• Scammers can spoof their caller ID number and use bits of your personal information to convince you to reveal your access code and steal your money.
• Never share your temporary access codes (for example, a one-time passcode) or PIN with anyone who calls you unexpectedly. Your bank or the government will never ask you for this information.
• Avoid sending money or giving your account information to anyone you don’t know or a company you can’t verify as legitimate.
• A bank will not contact a customer and ask them to send money to themselves or anyone else to prevent or stop fraud on their account.
• If you are uncomfortable with a request received by phone call or text that you didn’t initiate, don’t respond, and hang up immediately. Contact the company using legitimate sources such as a phone number on their website or the number on the back of your debit card.