A Chase customer said she lost $40,000 in a single night. A Huntington Bank customer handed over $5,000 through Zelle. Both women believed they were talking to people who worked for their banks. Neither has gotten her money back.
Federal officials are now sounding the alarm about a growing wave of banking spoof calls in which scammers impersonate bank fraud departments and even FBI agents, persuading customers to move their own money into accounts the criminals control. The FBI has described the scheme as a growing problem costing victims thousands of dollars at a time.
The mechanics are brazen. The callers spoof the phone numbers that appear on the back of customers' debit cards, display the bank's name on caller ID, and arrive armed with real account details, routing numbers, balances, even partial account numbers. By the time the victim realizes what happened, the money is gone.
Jennifer Lichthardt, a Chase customer, described how the call that cost her nearly everything started with a number she trusted. As she told ABC 7:
"The first call I got, it was the number on the back of my Chase debit card, and it said Chase fraud department."
The caller didn't fumble. The scammer read her account number aloud. They had her balance down to the penny, she said. Then the scheme escalated, the caller connected her with a supposed FBI agent who provided a fake agent number.
"They read me my account number. They had my account balance down to the penny. They had fake FBI agents that gave me an agent number."
Lichthardt said she was eventually convinced to move nearly $40,000 from her Chase account into a new so-called "secured" Chase account at her local branch. She then transferred thousands more to another online bank. She did not realize she had been scammed until the following morning.
Chase told ABC 7 that "her funds were withdrawn from the scammer's account the same day" the money was deposited. Lichthardt reported the incident to local authorities and the FBI. When asked whether she believed she would recover her money, her answer was plain:
"I don't know. I hope I do."
She described feeling "financially violated."
Susie Allgood, a Huntington Bank customer, fell into a nearly identical trap. She received a call from someone claiming to represent Zelle, the popular payment platform. The caller told her she needed to upgrade her Zelle account to a business account to keep receiving money.
"And in order to continue to receive, continue receiving money to and from Zelle, I had to upgrade my Zelle account to a business account."
The caller already had her routing number. That detail alone was enough to earn her trust.
"Because he said he was from Zelle and working with Huntington Bank. So, why would I not believe him? He already had my routing number."
Allgood said she was persuaded to send $5,000 via Zelle to the scammer's account, supposedly to keep her money safe. She later reported the incident to local authorities and the FBI.
Neither woman had received a refund from her bank, ABC 7 reported. Allgood pushed back on the idea that victims should simply absorb the loss:
"I think that each case needs to be looked at individually because, did I send the money? Yes, I did. I will admit to that. But I was also instructed by somebody who had the last four of my bank account, had my phone number."
Robert Richardson, a special agent with the FBI Chicago Field Office, explained how the scammers exploit panic. The criminals don't give victims time to think. They manufacture urgency, then tighten the pressure.
"When somebody is calling pretending to be the FBI, the victim then thinks they are in trouble. They are already frazzled, and when they are making these decisions, the criminal then starts to rush them more. The more they are rushed, the more decision-making they make last-minute."
The FBI has said spoofing and phishing schemes are specifically designed to trick victims into providing sensitive information such as passwords or bank PINs. The bureau directs anyone who suspects a cyber-enabled scam to file a report through its Internet Crime Complaint Center.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued its own blunt warning: "Never transfer or send money, cryptocurrency, or gold to someone you don't know in response to an unexpected call or message." The FTC added that if someone tells a consumer to move money to "protect it," that itself is the scam.
Chase issued a statement urging caution: "We urge all consumers to ignore phone, text, or internet requests to move money or gain access to their computer or bank accounts. Banks and legitimate companies won't make these requests, but scammers will."
That's sound advice in the abstract. But it sidesteps a question that both victims raised in different ways: how did the scammers get such precise account information in the first place? Lichthardt's callers had her exact balance. Allgood's caller had her routing number and partial account details. These weren't clumsy phishing attempts from a foreign call center. They were targeted, detailed, and convincing enough to fool people who were paying attention.
No suspects have been identified, charged, or arrested in either case. Neither bank has issued a final determination on reimbursement beyond the statements cited by ABC 7. The question of who bears responsibility, the customer who was deceived, or the institution whose systems apparently leaked enough data to make the deception possible, remains unresolved.
The pattern across both cases is consistent. Scammers spoof legitimate bank phone numbers. They arrive with real account details. They claim to be protecting the customer's money. They create urgency. And they direct the victim to move funds, either through in-branch transfers or digital payment platforms like Zelle, into accounts the criminals control.
The FBI and FTC both stress that no legitimate bank or government agency will ever call and ask a customer to transfer money to a "safe" account. Any such request is the scam itself. Consumers who receive suspicious calls should hang up, call the number on the back of their card independently, and report the contact to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.
But telling customers to be more careful only goes so far when the criminals already have the keys to the conversation. Two women trusted the institutions that held their money, followed instructions that sounded official, and lost thousands in hours. The banks offered sympathy and press statements. The money, so far, has not come back.
When scammers know your balance to the penny and your bank still says it's your problem, something in the system is failing, and it isn't the customer's common sense.
