A woman revealed that her roommate was tricked out of $3,000 by a scammer posing as Chase Bank, and Chase deleted the fraud claim afterward.
In a viral video with over 405,000 views, content creator Sam (@sammymads) walked viewers through her roommate Annie’s scam experience and the “awful” customer service she said Chase Bank provided during and after the theft.
“Four months ago in January, my roommate gets a call from Chase Bank. Like, the same number that’s on the back of your credit card,” Sam began.
Sam said that when Annie answered the call she believed was coming from Chase Bank, the man on the phone asked questions to confirm her account information.
The man reportedly informed Annie that there had been “suspicious activity” on her account and asked her to confirm whether she had sent a wire transfer in the last half hour. When Annie denied it, he supposedly walked her through how to cancel the transfer, but Annie began to have her doubts.
“Towards the end of the conversation, she’s starting to realize that she thinks that this guy actually just walked her through a transfer from her account,” Sam narrated.
She said Annie sprung into action, walking into her nearest Chase Bank while still on the phone with the scammer. As her call ended, she told the Chase employees that she thought she may have just been scammed into wiring money to someone’s account, Sam reported.
According to Sam, Annie was met with employees who were not only at a loss of how to help her but spent 45 minutes unsuccessfully trying to get in touch with someone from Chase who could.
“My roommate is sitting there for about 45 minutes when she starts getting so anxious that she is sitting in Chase Bank and calls Chase Bank herself,” Sam said. “She gets through to the fraud department on her phone before the people at the bank.”
The fraud department representative reportedly told Annie that there may be time to stop the transfer since they’re not instantaneous. Unfortunately, Sam said that given the amount of time it took to reach someone from the fraud department, the transfer had already gone through by the time the representative addressed it.
“Had the people at the bank known what they were doing, they would have been able to stop the transfer instead of wasting 45 minutes trying to figure out who to talk to,” Sam vented.
What reportedly followed was fourth months of damage control, with Annie filing police reports, contacting Chase, and getting the runaround.
According to Sam, Chase originally told Annie she’d have to wait until the transfer was “officially canceled,” a process she was told could take weeks. The bank allegedly never followed up with her or answered Annie’s claim.
Sam said Annie was also told she’d have to wait until April 10 for more information, but when Annie called on that date, no one at the bank knew what she was talking about. Even worse, the bank reportedly told her there were no claims on her account.
“Later, [the representative] finds her claim in the archives, like someone deleted it,” Sam said.
When Annie was transferred to a higher manager to whom she explained her entire situation, Sam said the manager laughed at Annie and told her none of what she said actually happened.
“My roommate, who is the sweetest, most unassuming person who would give her jacket off of her back to anyone in the street, comes home today crying because of Lori at Chase Bank. I’m not happy,” Sam said.
Before ending the video, Sam asked viewers if she was wrong for thinking that Annie deserved her money back.
“Not only is it a question of bank security—how someone has the Chase phone number and has all of her account information—but also how they could’ve helped her at Chase, and they had enough time to help her, they were just unable to because they didn’t know how to talk to,” she concluded.
@sammymads I WILL be taking Chase bank to court. #chasebank #chase #scam #scammeralert
♬ original sound – Sam:)
In the comments section, viewers offered advice on avoiding similar scams and on how Annie can get her money back.
“Tell her to immediately place a complaint with the FDIC or CFPB. Do it today. Chase will be forced to give her the money back!!” one viewer offered.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are both U.S. government agencies that, in part, supervise financial institutions to ensure consumer protection. Consumers can file complaints about financial services or products, and if the institution or service is regulated by the agency, it will begin an investigation or pass the complaint on to the appropriate agency.
“If someone claims to be calling from your bank ALWAYS hang up and call the bank back directly or go in person,” a second viewer advised.
“Wow. This changes my mind on opening an account there. This is so wrong,” a third viewer chimed in. Another viewer responded, “No definitely don’t open an account there. I’ve seen so many people scammed by wire transfer and Chase does nothing to help.”
This TikTok user isn’t the only one doubting Chase’s security practices for its customers. The Daily Dot previously reported on a woman who took all of her money out of Chase after 30 years of banking with the bank because the company froze her accounts for not verifying her customers’ third-party checks with their phone numbers. She found the verification method, which was not supplemented by a government ID requirement, to be insecure and inefficient, as phone verification systems can be compromised, and many people have phone lines they don’t have their names on, which would render the verification system of comparing their phone numbers to the names on their accounts useless.
The Daily Dot has also reported on a Chase and Bank of America customer who experienced a similar scam with his Zelle account. The customer received a call from a scammer using a Bank of America number who claimed his account had been compromised. The scammer said someone used his phone number to access his Zelle account, transfer the money there to a Bank of America checking account they created, and then shut the account down immediately. Sensing something was fishy, the customer called Chase, confirmed that it was likely a scam, and refused to give out any personal information.
While Annie wasn’t as lucky in catching the scam before she gave out her information, many viewers of Sam’s video believe it is the bank’s responsibility to return her money. Many others, however, believe customers must be more intentional about protecting themselves against scammers in the first place.
“Hope she gets her money back. But you literally cannot give information over the phone. This is a known scam unfortunately,” one viewer wrote.
“It’s hard to prevent fraud when the customer hands the info over on a silver platter. Your bank will never cold call like that. Hang up and call the number on the bank of your card if you ever get a call,” another viewer offered.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Sam via Instagram direct message and Chase Bank via email for more information.
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