February 2024 by Ron Z.
My wife fell for a scam and was told to wire a significant amount of money to an account in California. Owner of account was a DBA with a foreign name. If she had been provided with any information by the PNC rep that what she was experiencing was likely a scam, she would have known and stopped at that point. The only question asked was "you know this person as a __________" . My wife was expected to answer so she said friend'. The wire went through and was lost for good. My wife was told by the scammers not to tell anyone, not even a spouse or the bank employees because they are sometimes involved with the scams. From what we found out afterward, all of the signs of a scam were present and common. Especially since there was significant funds involved, the bank should have automatically provided a document informing their customer of common elements to identify whether you are being scammed. This has been going on for may years and the banks (at least PNC) still have not implemented any warnings to customers at the time when they are most vulnerable (when they have been placed in a panic situation.)
