A priest was tricked out of his $61,000 life savings after he received a fake PayPal email he knew was fraudulent – but then unwittingly called a helpline that was also a scam.  

In an attempt to rectify the situation, Father Robert Banzin, 85, called what he thought was PayPal to tell them about the $699 charge to his account on eBay. 

He thought he dialed the right number after he Googled PayPal’s support contact information, but he accidently called up a group of scammers. 

‘I just felt totally abused. This is my money; I worked all my life for it,’ Banzin said. 

Father Robert Banzin (pictured) got scammed back in August by fraudsters who pretended to be from PayPal. They took his life savings of $61,000

Banzin has worked as a priest at the Archdiocese of Chicago for nearly 60 years

He called the number to report an email that he got from what he thought was PayPal about a $699 transaction on eBay

Deacon Randy Belice who works at Banzin’s church in Riverside has started a GoFundMe to help the priest get his life savings back. 

When Father Banzin first called what he thought was the correct PayPal number, the person on the other line said that his case needed an ‘investigation’.

In the weeks that followed, Banzin said that he started to trust the so-called investigators as they convinced him to withdraw money. 

He was first convinced to send a wire transfer before he handed over all of his bank account information to them.

Multiple large transactions were made as a total of $61,000 was wiped from Banzin’s account. 

Banzin said that he reported the fraud to his bank, the FBI and the Chicago Police Department.

He was soon informed that it would be nearly impossible to get his money back, but he continued to fight and got an attorney.

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‘I’m very angry at myself, but the police and lawyer were telling me, “No, you are a victim, you are a victim, and warn other people not to become victims,”‘ Banzin said.

Fraud has continued to target the elderly community the hardest as they are more likely to save money over a long period of time. Older individuals are also known to be less technically advanced. 

As Banzin started to trust the scammers, he sent them a wire transfer just before he gave them all of his bank account information

DailyMail.com reached out to PayPal for comment and the company confirmed that they had nothing to do with the money that Banzin lost

According to a 2022 Elder Fraud Report from the FBI, 88,262 victims over 60-year-old faced fraud and amassed $3.1billion in total loses. 

The report also revealed that 5,456 of those scammed lost more than $100,000. 

During COVID-19 pandemic the frequency of online contact scams toward the elderly drastically increased. 

Phishing scams- like the one that happened to Banzin- occur when fraudulent emails or websites pretend to be from a legitimate source or company, but actually aren’t. 

DailyMail.com reached out to PayPal for comment and the company confirmed that they had nothing to do with the money that Banzin lost. 

They also confirmed that none of the transferred funds occurred through PayPal and that they recommend that customers impacted by fraud like this should go directly to their bank for guidance.  

The GoFundMe that Belice created for Father Banzin has raised a total of $43,066 as of Wednesday afternoon. 

Banzin who some have called a ‘wonderful’ and ‘positive’ influence has been a priest at the Archdiocese of Chicago for nearly 60 years.  

‘Over many years, Fr. Banzin has been such an important part of our lives and continues to touch our hearts and souls through his preaching and ministry in the church,’ Belice said on the donation page.

The Chicago Police Department’s Financial Crime Unit is currently investigating the scam.