Caught in the Scam: Texas seniors and banks fight financial exploitation
FORT WORTH — The second she hung up the phone, Phyllis Lopez knew she had been scammed.
"All I can say is I was dumb that morning because it just went right over my head," said the 71-year-old Fort Worth resident.
The scheme started with a text message about a fraudulent charge. Then came a phone call where the ID read "Chase Bank." The caller claimed to be a bank representative and told Lopez her savings account had been hacked. To protect her money, she needed to wire all $3,500 she had in her savings into a new account.
"I believed everything he was telling me," she said. "And then right before he hung up he said, 'Okay, Ms. Lopez,' and then he said, 'ha,' like he was laughing at me."
As Lopez's heart dropped, she rushed to her local Fort Worth Chase Bank and pleaded with them to stop the transfer.
"They said, 'Ms. Lopez, we really can't do anything about it because you initiated it, you pushed the button.' I was sick."
Lopez, who was still grieving the death of her adult son, said she was embarrassed and devastated.
"I just felt like the whole world caved in on me," she said.
Texas bank law prevents some scams but does little to help others
In 2017, Republican state Sen. Tan Parker of Flower Mound authored the Protection of Vulnerable Adults from Financial Exploitation Act, giving Texas bankers the power to freeze a bank account when they suspect the owner is a victim of a scam.
Since the law went into effect, there's been a significant increase in reports to Adult Protective Services from financial institutions, up from 3,600 reports in 2017 to more than 6,400 in 2023.
"I think all those reports are incidences that we have, arguably, avoided a crisis or a nightmare for a senior citizen," Parker said.
However, some consumer advocates said the state law did not go far enough to protect seniors.
The Republican state senator said the law has been successful but adds more needs to be done.
The state legislature recently approved funding to study this issue. Based on the results of that study, Parker said he plans to file multiple bills aimed at preventing these scams, as well as bills looking at new ways to help with the recovery of stolen assets.
Scam victim sued bank for "failing to protect"
Two years ago, Shirley Ison-Newsome, 77, lost more than $50,000 to an elaborate scam. The next morning, she rushed to her local Dallas Chase branch where a bank employee assured her that her wire transfer to China had been caught in time.
A few days later, Ison-Newsome said Chase changed its story, informing her the transaction had gone through.
Ison-Newsome sued Chase for failing to protect her.
Federal court records show that prior to completing the wire transfer, Chase contacted Ison-Newsome to verify the transaction and warned it would be irreversible. However, the court also found that the bank did not tell her it had detected fraudulent behavior.
The case was settled in an undisclosed agreement.
"It can't be that at the end of the day that it is just too bad, especially when, importantly, [Ison-Newsome] was extremely vigilant," explained her attorney Will Brewer IV, a partner with Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors. "She immediately alerted her trusted financial institution. That's everything that you would expect someone to do to fix the situation."
In a statement referencing both Lopez's and Ison-Newsome's cases, a Chase spokesperson told CBS News Texas, "Ms. Lopez and Ison-Newsome were the victims of sophisticated scams. The best way to avoid these types of scams is to not send money to people you don't know."
Chase also provided a list of scam prevention tips:
- Protect your personal account information, ATM pins, and passwords. If someone contacts you and asks for this information, especially if it's someone claiming to be from your bank, do not share it with them.
- If you want to be sure you're talking to a legitimate representative of the company that contacted you, call the number on their official website.
- If you want to be sure you are talking to a legitimate representative of your bank, call the number on the back of your card or visit a branch.
- Never click on suspicious links in a text or email or grant anyone remote access to your phone or computer.
- Do not respond to phone, text, or internet requests for money or access to your computer or bank accounts. Banks will never call, text, or email asking for you to send money to yourself or anyone else to prevent fraud.
- To learn more about common scams and ways to protect yourself, visit: www.chase.com/security-tips.
