It was a dark time for Alice Lin.
Lin, 80, told the NBC4 I-Team that she lost more than $700,000 of her life savings because someone befriended her through text messages.
“The past year or so has been really tough, and my goal is to survive,” Lin explains.
In 2022, Lin struck up a conversation with a man through an online web chat, where they discussed similar experiences, including losing her husband to cancer several years earlier. According to her, the man also claimed that she had tragically lost his wife.
“And I started trusting him.”
She said the man told her about investing in cryptocurrencies, asked her to download an investment app, and showed her a lucrative account.
“That’s when I thought maybe I could help my disabled son,” Lin says. “So I thought, why not? I could make a little money.”
“He gave me instructions and where to send the money. So when I go to the bank and transfer the money, I trust him completely so I just follow him. That’s all,” Lin added.
According to a complaint filed on her behalf in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, she went to a local Chase Bank branch in August 2022 and began transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars just days apart. ing.
“We allege that there were many red flags and that Chase Bank knew or should have known that Ms. Lin was being defrauded,” said Ms. Lin’s attorney, Ann Marie Murphy. says.
According to the complaint, Chase representatives “…failed to ask relevant questions, flag these highly irregular and suspicious transactions for further investigation, or complete a thorough risk assessment.” “It was…” he claims.
The complaint also alleges that Lin has not communicated with Chase in several years, and that bank representatives have not contacted Lin or his eldest daughter, who is an authorized user of the account.
Lin’s daughter, Floy See, said a notice from the bank could have saved her mother.
“You go to a gas station in a weird place to spend $50, and you get a notification on your phone,” Shi says.
In a statement emailed to the NBC4 I-Team, a Chase spokesperson said:
“Consumers should always be suspicious when someone they don’t know asks them to send money quickly.
Scammers impersonate businesses, banks, government agencies, and even family members in an attempt to scam consumers out of their hard-earned money. We urge all consumers to ignore any telephone or Internet requests for money or for access to their computer or bank account. No legitimate organization or business would make such a request, but scammers do.
When a customer visits one of our branches to complete a wire transaction, our banker asks questions and alerts them to various fraud scenarios and that they may not be able to recover their money once they send the wire. be clearly warned. In this case, these communications…occurred when Ms. Lin authorized these communications. ”
Chase also offered fraud prevention tips.
If you want to make sure you are talking to an authorized representative of your bank, call the number on the back of your card or visit a branch.
Scammers can “spoof” phone numbers. Caller ID can indicate that a call or text message is from Chase even if it isn’t. They do this to trick people into providing personal or financial information or to force them to send money. Keep in mind that even if your caller ID shows a call or text message from Chase, it could be a scam. If in doubt, hang up and call us directly.
Consumers must protect their personal account information, passwords, and one-time passcodes.
To prevent fraud, banks will never call, text, or email you or anyone else asking you to transfer money.
Please be sure to double-check the remittance destination. Once you send money, you may not get it back.
For more information on common scams and how to protect yourself, visit: www.chase.com/securitycenter.
Standing among the more than 100 rose bushes she’s planted over the past year, Lin is now focusing on what brings her joy.
“I just want to stay alive, but I also want to see if I can let other victims know about all this going on,” Lin said.
