A customer of a billion-dollar US bank reportedly says scammers stole the funds from her small business loan that she had just received.
Lele Ewah, a small business owner in Houston, Texas, says the scam all started with a call from a woman impersonating an official at Prosperity Bank, where she has her account, reports the NBC-affiliated KPRC2.
She says the caller ID matched the bank’s number and the woman, who identified herself as “Erica,” referenced her travel habits.
“She asked, ‘Are you and your husband out of town? You always set travel notifications.’ It sounded so real.”
Ewah says the woman asked her to verify certain information to “secure” her account and reset her online banking access. However, in doing so, Ewah unwittingly gave the scammer access to her account.
She says later in the day, she noticed two large transfers totaling $20,000 were made to internal accounts at the same bank. That was the total amount of funds Ewah received from a small business loan to make repairs and do marketing for her health and wellness shop called Power of Sea Moss.
“I was absolutely devastated. From a small business perspective, every dollar is needed. I felt like I couldn’t breathe.”
While the bank told her it could recover the funds since they were sent to another internal account, she says the bank has only restored $12,000 so far.
“We borrowed a certain amount of money for a specific reason, and now we don’t have it. That doesn’t fix the situation.”
Prosperity Bank is a $38.765 billion regional financial holding company based in Houston, Texas, with 284 branches across the state and in Oklahoma.
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