“I couldn’t even believe how sophisticated it was”: Teacher loses life savings after getting call from what he thought was Chase Bank

Texas teacher Russell Leahy, 28, spent years building up his savings, often foregoing vacations and going out on weekends. That’s why when he received a call from what he thought was Chase Bank telling him his account was compromised, he acted fast. 

Leahy told WFAA he was scammed into moving his $32,000 in savings to a new account. That account is presumably owned by the scammers.

He told the news outlet in an exclusive interview that he received a call from people pretending to be Chase Bank representatives. They reportedly told him that there was fraudulent activity with his account. Therefore, he needed to move his life savings. 

Leahy said the impersonators sent him convincing texts and banking information, which made him believe his account was truly compromised. 

"I couldn't even believe how sophisticated it was," Leahy told the news outlet.

He called the ordeal “extremely violating.” 

What can Chase Bank do? 

Because Leahy didn’t have fraud protection, Chase Bank was only able to give him $2,000 of the $32,000. Plus, Chase is reportedly defining what happened to Leahy as a scam, not fraud. 

Per WFAA, Chase said that fraud involves a person “illegally accessing someone else's account and making withdrawals, transfers, or purchases without the account holder's permission."

A scam involves “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,” Chase explained to WFAA. 

Leahy raises awareness  

Leahy recently got married, and now he and his new wife are living paycheck to paycheck, according to WFAA. 

He came forward with his story in an effort to prevent what happened to him from happening to others.

"I'd rather me be the sacrificial lamb for the rest of these people and maybe save other people's money from being stolen," he said. "I'm really hoping to look ahead and move on with my life and not have to start over from scratch."

H/T People

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