Ft. Worth Woman Falls Victim to Zelle Scam and Has Thousands of Dollars Stolen

A Fort Worth woman had thousands of dollars stolen from her bank account over the course of three days from a Zelle scam.

Shanna Coulter, who has never used Zelle, a money sending and receiving service linked through banks, received a text message last month from Zelle. The message read, “Did you attempt a Zelle payment for the amount of $2,000?” Coulter responded to the text message and sent, “No.”

Immediately after, Coulter received a phone call from what her Caller ID showed as her bank. However, it wasn’t her bank, it was professional scammers using technology to mask their phone number.

The man on the phone said he was with her financial institution and told her the only way to prevent the $2,000 from processing was to provide him with a code.

A code was sent via text message to her phone and Coulter, despite also reading the warning message about not sharing it, gave it to him.

He now had access to her Zelle account and could send from her bank account up until the daily limit, which is $1000.

The man called her the next day and reassure her that “they” were still working on the case. Meanwhile, $1k was taken out of her account again and continued to for three days.

After contacting her bank, she was able to lock down her account and prevent further transactions. Coulter was initially by her credit union that she wouldn’t get the money back because insurance doesn’t cover scams.

Thankfully, she was eventually able to speak to the right person and was reimbursed her money.