A 28-year-old teacher says JPMorgan Chase is refusing to make him whole after scammers pretending to work at the bank stole $32,000.
Texas resident Russell Leahy says he lost the money to thieves who claimed to be Chase Bank representatives, reports the ABC-affiliated news station WFAA.
Leahy says he got a phone call from the impostors who warned him that his account was flashing suspicious activity and that he needed to relocate his funds for security purposes. He says he followed the thieves’ instructions after seeing text messages and banking details that appeared to support their claims.
“I couldn’t even believe how sophisticated it was.”
Leahy, who had been saving up for years in hopes of starting a family with his wife, says the fraudsters drained his entire life savings, $32,000, from his account.
“I had literally never felt like the wind had been taken out of my sails before. I’d never really felt like I was going to pass out before, but it really felt like the end of the world for me.”
When JPMorgan Chase learned of the incident, the bank decided to send Leahy $2,000 – just 6.25% of the money that he lost. According to the banking giant, Leahy’s case does not qualify for fraud protection, leaving him to shoulder most of the losses.
In a statement to WFAA, JPMorgan Chase draws a distinction between scams and fraud.
“Fraud on a bank account involves someone illegally accessing someone else’s account and making withdrawals, transfers, or purchases without the account holder’s permission.
[A scam] is a deceptive scheme or trick used to cheat someone out of their money or other valuable assets. Scammers often use false promises, misleading information, or deceptive activities to manipulate victims into giving up something of value. Scams can take many forms, including counterfeit or non-existent products sold on social media marketplaces, phishing emails, fake websites, spoofed Caller IDs on mobile phones, fake profiles on dating sites, fake jobs on job boards, among others.”
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