An elderly woman has lost her life savings to a sophisticated scam amid warnings from JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, according to a new report.
Retired therapist Judith Boivin lost about $600,000 after scammers made her believe she was an integral part of an undercover government operation, reports The Washington Post.
Boivin says the bad actors made her believe she was working on a mission with the FBI to take down a Mexican cartel involved in selling illegal drugs and money laundering.
When Boivin visited Morgan Stanley to take out her nest egg, employees of the bank immediately became suspicious. One investigator told her that she was likely a victim of an elaborate fraud.
“If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck.”
But Boivin says she stuck to a script given to her by the scammers, who coached her to write a letter stating the bank should release her funds.
“This is a decision I am making while in sound mind and after celebrating my 79th birthday and beginning my 80th year of life, I wish to have full control of my finances at this time.”
Once Morgan Stanley released her money, Boivin was told to split the funds and deposit it in new Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank and TD Bank accounts. To avoid raising suspicion, she then withdrew $10,000 to $20,000 from those accounts per visit.
Boivin says she delivered most of her cash inside a brown paper to couriers at a nearby parking lot, believing the FBI was keeping watch.
Morgan Stanley says Boivin couldn’t be dissuaded even though the bank took several steps to keep her from losing her funds to fraud, including putting a brief hold on her account and notifying a family member and the authorities.
JPMorgan says branch staff urged her to reconsider.
“Despite several attempts to get her to reconsider, she told our branch staff she needed the money for a business venture.
She later acknowledged she was coached by the scammers on what to say to our bankers. The best way to avoid these types of scams is to ignore requests for money from people you don’t know.”
Capital One, PNC and TD Bank say they can’t make specific comments on Boivin’s case.
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