A woman called Willie Delane, from Houston (Texas), experienced a true financial nightmare when she lost $10,000 that she had deposited from a life insurance check into her Wells Fargo account. This happened because fraudsters posed as bank employees and they got to trick her to authorize some transfers. At the beginning, Wells Fargo didn’t want to give her the money back, but when this was on the news the bank decided to give it to her.
This proves how fast fraudsters can take the most of clients and how important it is to be careful when using electronic banking. So, let’s find out more about this woman’s case, shall we?
How could this have happened?
Delane deposited her $10,000 life insurance check into her Wells Fargo account and, just nine hours later, she received a text message warning about suspicious activity in her account. She called the customer service number provided in the text, thinking it was from the bank.The bank representative (actually part of the scam) said they would freeze her account and cancel her card.
The next day, Delane noticed that $4,400 was missing. The money had been transferred from her savings account to her checking account and then withdrawn.
The thing is that Wells Fargo initially claimed that Delane had authorized the transfer, but she insisted she had not.
Legal protection and limitations
According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Regulation E, if a bank makes an unauthorized electronic transfer, it must investigate and correct any issue immediately. However, if the client was scammed and authorizes the transfer, the bank is not obliged to give the money back.
Basically, if you’’authorize’’ the transfer, the bank can’t give you the money back (no matter if you were scammed). That’s why, at the beginning, the bank didn’t give the money back to the woman.
Statistics about bank frauds
To understand the huge impact of frauds we think it’s better to show some figures:
- In 2024, the FTC reported $12.5 billion loss because of frauds, which was 25% more than the previous year.
- The most common frauds include investment fraud and impersonation schemes.
- Text messages are the third most used method by scammers, after email and phone calls.
- In Texas, fraud losses exceeded $261 million in the first half of the year, with people aged 60 to 69 losing the most—over $56 million.
How to protect yourself from fraud?
To avoid being a scam victim like this woman was, experts recommend the following:
- Never click links or download attachments from unexpected texts or emails.
- Do not call phone numbers provided in suspicious messages. Instead, find the official contact information of the bank or company.
- Use two-factor authentication (2FA) for your accounts.
- Never give personal information to anyone who contacts you, whether by phone, text, or email.
- Use secure payment methods, such as credit cards or services with fraud protection like PayPal.
- Be careful with wire transfers, making sure you know exactly who and where you are sending money.
- Watch for misspellings or strange formatting in messages, which can indicate a scam.
What if you experience what the woman did?
Well, if you happen to be in the same situation as the woman of this case, this is what you should do:
- Report it immediately to the bank and appropriate authorities.
- Check all other accounts for suspicious activity.
- Keep records of all communication related to the case.
- DataVisor recommends being aware that banks have legal time frames to investigate, and customers may be entitled to a provisional credit if the investigation takes more than 10 business days.
Of course, many people are victims of a scam, but with prevention and care the risk can be reduced. So, next time you are going to do a transfer, think about this woman and follow the safety measures we mentioned before.