A WOMAN was forced to watch all of her money drain from her Chase bank account as the FBI advised banking customers on how to stay safe.

Victoria Karwowski from Chicago lost $1,700 from her account when she was held at gunpoint and forced to hand over her banking information.

The robbery that saw Karwowski and her roommate confronted by three armed thieves outside a Rosco Village bar in December was caught on camera.

Despite this, the bank initially refused to return Karwowski’s money, claiming that the payment had been “authorized.”

“We had three guys come out of a car – all three of them armed with guns, masks, hooded, demanding all of our stuff,” Karwowski told ABC News affiliate KABC-TV.

“One of them started chasing my friend.

“They were all holding their guns up to me, telling me to give them my passcode to my phone.”

The video of the incident shows the two women sitting outside of the bar and being confronted by three men who immediately pointed their guns at them.

Once they got hold of Karwowski’s phone, they made her hand over her security information in order to access her banking app.

“They sent themselves all the money in my account,” she said.

The men transferred nearly $1,700 from her Chase account using the Zelle payment service.

“It’s a very traumatizing experience,” Karwowski said.

“I was so on edge and so unwell.”

Karwowski immediately reported the robbery to Chase and to the Chicago Police Department.

While Chase returned the money to her account in the form of “temporary credit” while they investigated the incident.

However, according to the news outlet, just weeks later the money was withdrawn after the bank’s investigation concluded that the transaction by the robbers was “authorized.”

Despite escalating her case two more times with Chase, each one was lost and so she turned to KABC-TV for help.

In just a few days, the bank refunded Karwowski’s account, the news outlet said.

“To have it back and kind of close that chapter altogether, and not having to worry about it anymore, was just so relieving,” she said.

“I don’t think that that would have been able to happen without the I-Team.”

Meanwhile, Chase told the outlet: “We’re sorry Ms. Karwowski experienced this stressful situation.”

“I would love to put this behind me and the only way I could do that is if they just like had a little bit of empathy. Right?” Karwowski said.

“A little bit of humanity. And that’s really like, All I ask is, is this is happening more and more.”

According to data from the Chicago Police Department, robberies such as these have increased since 2021 when there were 110 incidents in which mobile payment services were used.

This increased to 171 in 2022 and then 271 in 2023.

As a result, the FBI Cybercrimes Department has issued advice to banking customers on how to keep themselves safe.

“Use the common sense approach and give up whatever they want that’s material and try to get away safely if you can,” FBI special agent Ali Sadiq told the news outlet.

The public is also advised to set up two-factor authentication, facial recognition, and other levels of prevention though these may not prevent a robbery such as that faced by Karwowski.

However, Zelle said that banks “are required to reimburse consumers for confirmed fraud claims” including thefts like Karwowski’s.

Chicago police said that the suspects who robbed Karwowski have not yet been caught.

Neither Karwowski nor her roommate were harmed in the incident.