“Please hold,” the caller said, “while I transfer you to my supervisor.”
It was a Wednesday in August, a little before lunch. The call came from a 212 number, which for a New Yorker could be almost anything — the school, the pharmacy, the roof guy — so I answered.
The caller asked for me by name and stated in measured tones that he was from Chase Bank and he wanted to verify transfers being made from my account to someone in Texas.
Wrong number, I said. I don’t have a Chase account.
But one was recently opened in your name, he replied, with two Zelle transfers. And minutes ago, someone tried to transfer those funds, $2,100, to San Antonio.
Now, this carried the whiff of plausibility. I’m one of some 150 million people who has access to Zelle, the payments platform that lets you send and receive money from your phone. But my scam radar was also fully operational and pinging.
“How do I know this isn’t a scam?” I asked, sounding like that guy in every movie who asks an undercover cop if he’s a cop.
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The post I’ve Written About Loads of Scams. This One Almost Got Me. appeared first on New York Times.
