Whatever the bank asked, I gave her all the information. It's insane how easy it was. I had no defenses at all.

Moral of the story: please don't store large amounts of cash in your checking account.

Close reading reveals that in the story, only the robbers claim that he has a wife and no other facts point towards it.

And Chase just transferred the money without any knowledge or indication of him actually having a wife?

I mean it's possible, but if it really was as easy as just getting some information and posing as a wife, then this kind of fraud would be very widespread.

> And Chase just transferred the money without any knowledge or indication of him actually having a wife?

Sounds like the wife excuse was only needed because the scammers were female. If the scammers were male they could have easily impersonated him directly. It's not like the bank keeps voiceprints of their customers for identification.

Yeah, I did not have a wife.

None of this stuff is authenticated the number on your credit card is an ID number not an auth secret, and if you make a habit of it your bank will cash personal checks from you written on notebook paper.

The idea is that fraud is already illegal and there are methods for dealing with it.

I think the issue is that the bank probably gets a lot of legitimate phone calls like that. $500 is the kind of money you can need urgently and where failing closed would be a major inconvinience.

"Good customer service" is indistinguishable from vulnerability to social engineering.

I think you are only seeing one side of the issue here. Getting drugged out of your mind and telling strangers your mother maiden name and the name of your childhood pet is just not that common of an occurence. The rare lost $500 may be a worthwhile price to pay, to be able to access your money in a pinch.

Now when we get to 4-digit sums, the balance starts to shift to caution.

One, yes. It was a fair amount for a hard lesson IMO. But also keep in mind that these people were extremely smooth, confident, and "professional". It was a technique, they were not improvising.

The only reason you think this is not a common occurrence is because people don't talk about it, very much like women who are sexually harassed are not vocal about being taken advantage of. Hey, now I know how it feels.

I don't talk about it, but I chose to because the top post suggested that somehow the information that you give out is always under your control. It's not, and this sort of scheme/robbery happens ALL the time.

Thanks for telling about it