Banking Imposter Scams: A Growing Threat to Your Life Savings

In a shocking trend that has become America’s number one consumer complaint in 2025, imposter scams are leaving victims financially devastated and emotionally shattered. This sophisticated form of fraud, which has surpassed romance scams, family scams, and tech support scams over the past five years, has already generated over 516,000 complaints to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by mid-2025, with losses totaling a staggering $1.691 billion. The human toll of these scams is devastating, as illustrated by the experiences of several victims who bravely shared their stories. Noel Phillips, a 33-year-old journalist from London now living in New York, lost his entire life savings of nearly $30,000 in the blink of an eye. “It’s devastating,” Phillips told The Post. “I can still hear the voices of the people who called me, posing as employees of Chase Bank, claiming there had been fraudulent activity on my account. They used fear tactics to basically hypnotize me into handing over all the money I’d worked so hard to earn and save over the last four years.”

The modus operandi of these imposter scammers is frightfully effective. They typically contact victims by phone, email, text, or direct message, pretending to be representatives from trusted companies like banks, retailers, delivery services, or utility providers. They create an urgent situation, claiming there’s been a security breach or unauthorized activity on the victim’s account. Using sophisticated technology, including AI-powered spoofing tools that can mimic legitimate phone numbers and create realistic background noises, they convince victims to transfer money or share personal information to “protect” their accounts. The scammers often keep victims on the phone while directing them to make transactions, instructing them not to tell bank employees what they’re doing. Christopher Brown, a lawyer with the FTC’s Division of Marketing Practices, explains that these scams are increasingly sophisticated: “AI can certainly amplify the scams, making them more believable. They’re trying to gain your trust, making you believe they are who they’re claiming to be.”

The psychological manipulation involved in these scams is particularly insidious. When Phillips received a call from what appeared to be Chase Bank’s legitimate phone number—which he verified by hanging up and Googling the bank’s official number—he had no reason to doubt the caller’s identity. “The timing of the call was immaculate,” Phillips recalled, noting that he had just received an alert from his Chase app about an unauthorized transaction. The scammers told him his account was “under attack” and that they suspected employees at his local branch had stolen his personal details. They convinced him to move his money into what they called a “decoy” account that supposedly already had his name on it. “There wasn’t just one voice scaring me into submission—there were at least five, even people posing as law enforcement and federal agents,” Phillips said. “There was the ambient sounds of a call center. And everyone had solid American accents, so I’m thinking, ‘OK, this is not the typical call from abroad. This is legitimate.'”

Deborah Moss, a 65-year-old caretaker from Northern California, had a similar experience when she was conned out of $162,000 in 2020. A scammer calling herself “Miss Barbara” claimed to be a Chase representative and told Moss her ATM card had been compromised. The scammer already had Moss’s phone number, address, and banking information, and only needed Moss to provide a three-digit code sent to her phone—which was actually authorizing wire transfers from her account. Over the course of a week, “Miss Barbara” called repeatedly with the same story, each time tricking Moss into authorizing another transfer. When Moss finally went to her Chase branch to resolve the issue, she discovered her account had been completely drained. “I started screaming like you wouldn’t believe,” Moss recalled. “I was, like, ‘Oh, my f—king God.’ I was just hysterical. That was all my money.” The trauma was compounded when she sought help: “I went to the cops, and they pretty much laughed in my face. They said, ‘Oh, man, forget it. You’ll never get that money back.’ They didn’t do anything. There was no investigation.”

The lack of support from financial institutions and law enforcement adds another layer of pain for victims. Unlike in the UK, where financial institutions repay victims of fraud up to approximately $113,000, U.S. banks are generally not required to reimburse victims of bank fraud under federal law. Phillips and Moss both claimed that Chase offered little support in recovering their stolen funds or bringing the perpetrators to justice. When Phillips reported his case to the NYPD, an officer allegedly laughed and told him, “You’re f—ked.” “The bigger injustice than a scammer stealing money is when your bank doesn’t help customers who fall victim to such a crime,” Phillips lamented. “In America, the last thing you expect is for your bank to turn its back on you.” Similarly, Nina Mortellito, an 86-year-old grandmother from the Upper East Side, is suing Bank of America and TD Bank for allegedly failing to protect her from a $700,000 scam. Her attorney, Robert Georges, told The Post he’s inundated with bank imposter fraud cases from victims plagued with “devastation, embarrassment, confusion and upset” following the violation. “There’s this fear about how they’re going to live without their life savings,” he said.

While most victims never recover their losses, Moss’s story had a remarkable ending. After her case made national news, she received a call from a wealthy elderly woman from Napa County, California, who offered to write her a check for the full $162,000 she had lost. The woman was a complete stranger who wanted nothing in return—she simply wanted to help. “I didn’t know her. It was totally crazy,” Moss said. “We don’t talk much, but I write her every New Year, telling her she’s changed my life. And I’ll do that until the day I die.” As imposter scams continue to rise, experts advise extreme caution. The FCC reports that U.S. consumers receive approximately 4 billion spoofed calls each month. A Chase spokesperson emphasized that banks will never call and ask for account information, tell customers to transfer money to “protect” it, insist they lie to bankers about a transaction, or pressure them to act immediately. If you receive such a call, hang up immediately and call your bank at the number on the back of your card. As Christopher Brown of the FTC warns: “Don’t automatically trust the caller ID because it might be spoofed. And you should not provide financial information to someone who calls you out of the blue.”