AN unsuspecting Wells Fargo customer has lost $2,500 to a Zelle scam with no hope of reimbursement.

Julia Gibson was horrified to learn her bank couldn’t help after she was victimized by the money-transfer app scam.

Wells Fargo customers have been speaking out about scams where fraudsters trick them by pretending to be employees of their bank.

Scammers will reach out by text or phone call to convince customers that their accounts have been compromised and scare them into quickly sending their funds to them.

In recent years, fraudsters have started to use the money-transfer software Zelle as it’s already used by a number of consumers.

In just seconds, an account holder can send thousands of dollars that can’t be returned.

In 2020 alone, nearly 18 million people were scammed through digital wallets and person-to-person payment apps, according to industry consultant Javelin Strategy & Research.

As the life-altering split-second mistakes continue, bank customers are urging their providers to come up with solutions.

In October 2021, Wells Fargo customer Gibson lost all the money in her account to a heartless scammer and was initially granted a provision credit from her bank, The New York Times reported.

However, in January, she was shocked to see that the credit had been suddenly taken away when the bank decided the transfer wasn’t fraudulent.

“What was so frustrating about this whole thing was that the customer service rep I talked to told me so many people had been experiencing this,” she said.

Another customer, Justin Faunce, lost $500 to a scammer pretending to be a Wells Fargo representative and has seen no progress in getting his money back.

His case started with a text message asking him to verify whether he made a payment on Zelle.

Faunce responded that he didn’t and immediately got a call with the caller ID “Wells Fargo.”

The caller told him to stop the fraudulent payments, he would have to send the money back to himself.

In order to use Zelle, a customer must link their phone number to the service.

Faunce had not linked his phone number, so the thief was able to get his information to send himself money.

The scammer instructed Faunce to send the money to an account that, unbeknownst to the victim, was now linked to the scammer.

“It was clearly fraud,” he said.

“This wasn’t my fault, so why isn’t the bank doing the right thing here?”

Top tips on avoiding scams:

As scams become more sophisticated with the use of artificial intelligence, it is important you know how to spot a scam and how to avoid them.

• Be skeptical of online deals that seem too good to be true, especially on social media.
• Scammers will often use tactics to make you panicked so you make quick decisions – be cautious if you are told to take immediate action and verify who has contacted you.
• Chase Bank warns customers to “never return any unexpected funds without calling Chase first.”
• Never send money to someone you have only spoken to online or by phone as this is likely a romance scam.
• Unless you 100% know who you are talking to, never give someone remote access to your device.
• Never accept help from strangers at an ATM and always be vigilant when making withdrawals.
• Do not send money or click any links indicating that you have won a prize.

Source: Chase.com

FIGHT THE FRAUD

Because consumers are technically authorizing the purchase, the bank does not flag the transfers as fraudulent.

Instead, banks are warning customers to take extra caution whenever they are contacted by someone saying they’re with their provider.

“Organized crime is rampant,” said John Buzzard, the lead fraud analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research.

“A couple years ago, we were just starting to talk about it,” on apps like Zelle and Veno, said Buzzard.

“Now, it’s common and everywhere.”

Security experts say that banks will never instruct a customer to send money through Zelle or transfer funds to an overseas account.

The U.S. Sun has reached out to Zelle and Wells Fargo for comment.

Another bank customer hung up on a call after realizing it was a scam but still lost $15,000 in minutes.