CADILLAC —A Northern Michigan man almost scammed out of thousands of dollars until an alert bank employee was able to stop it.
The Cadillac senior was close to being taken by the scammer, who posed as an employee from Fifth Third Bank but luckily the plot was thwarted by the banker.
Banker Anna Pollington at Cadillac’s Fifth Third bank said that action set off alarm bells for her.
“He deposited a large amount of about $5000. And then he wanted to send that, plus everything else that he had in his account as a wire,” said Pollington.
Pollington said making a large deposit and then turning around and doing a wire transfer is suspicious behavior.
“So, I began to ask him some questions regarding the fraud. Just checking to see what it’s for. And he proceeded to tell me that he didn’t need to tell me what it was for,” said the banker.
She said that was another red flag. After asking more questions, more of the story came out.
“The person that was calling told him that they were a Fifth Third Bank representative. They had told him that his funds were in jeopardy of being compromised, and he needed to send this wire in order for them to secure his funds, and that they would send the money back to him,” said Pollington.
She said she informed him that was a common scam-and she was not going to complete the wire transfer.
He asked me not to be so loud because he then was telling me that the person asking him to send the wire was actually on the phone with him at that time.
Pollington said that happens often as well, the scammer wants to hear when the transaction goes through to grab the funds and other potential benefits.
“If in fact the wire was turned down, which it was, now he knows other questions to ask the customer now he knows and another direction to send him to continue to still get these funds.
She said she’s glad she was able to catch it, in many cases, people scammed out of money don’t get it back and scammers are never prosecuted. I myself was a victim of identity theft, and so I understand how they feel when something happens like this. I know physically what they’re feeling mentally what they’re feeling. He shook my hand and said, thank you. It was like a weight lifted off of his shoulders. You know, he was very relieved,” said Pollington.
Pollington said in today’s world you have to stay vigilant.
“They’re doing it in so many different ways. I mean, they’re coming up with new scams every day. New things, new reasons. I see 2 to 3, maybe four different scams a week from different customers,” said Pollington.