RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT/Gray News) – An 80-year-old woman in Virginia is fighting to regain her life savings after she said scammers took them all.
This past month, Kay received a message from someone she thought was her bank.
The message said her account was restricted and that she needed to contact a specific number to fix it.
“And I thought, ‘Dear god, what is going on?’ So I called this number, and I did what they told me to do because they told me they were top security at Wells Fargo. Once my money was in here, no one could touch it. No one. I didn’t know it at the time I was talking to scammers.”
She said after getting off the call, all the money in her savings account was gone. Kay lost tens of thousands of dollars.
“I could barely breathe I just felt like I was suffocating and I called the bank immediately, and they said, ‘Did you withdraw a huge amount?’ I said, ‘No,’ they said, ‘Well, scammers did. Please get in as quickly as you can,’” said Kay.
Kay went to her Wells Fargo branch and reported it to the police. Her bank told her she would be reimbursed, but days went by, and Kay later found out that their fraudulent department closed the case because she willingly gave them her information.
“This is my life savings; it’s all I have in the world, and again, at my age, I can’t jump out and say, ‘Oh well, I’ll get a job and just reimburse myself; I’m not able to do that. I have a lot of health issues,‘” said Kay.
Now, she doesn’t want anyone to go through the same thing she’s going through.
“I’m just saying to these poor people out here, if you have anything, any call or anything similar to what I have, please make sure you’re not dealing with scammers,” said Kay.
Wells Fargo told WWBT that they are investigating this case.
In the meantime, they have tips on their website for avoiding bank imposter scams. Don’t rely on caller ID; don’t share private account information. Ignore transaction requests you didn’t initiate, and hang up and contact them directly when in doubt.
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