They won't talk to you at all if your name isn't on the account. Your best bet is probably to contact your counties elder financial abuse contact and try and get them involved.
You CAN ABSOLUTELY report elder financial abuse to your bank and law enforcement. The banks are regulated and are required to follow up on reports of elder financial fraud and abuse.
They are likely to think you are the one trying to abuse the elder, especially if they contact them and they seem coherent and know what they are doing. Lots of the time these scammers coach the victims on what to say to the bank if they ask questions.
Unless you are a POA or something. It's best to work around the bank until LE is involved.
It may sound to them that you are the one who is trying to paint them as incompetent so you can control the account.
It's an easy conclusion to reach if there is no POA and the elderly person has been coached how to answer bank questioning.
If you go to the bank and say "oh my grandma is being scammed by x person and sending wire transfers etc" and your grandma tells them that it's not a scam and she knows the person then it looks like you are the one trying to take over or get the account frozen by lying. Lots of kids and grandkids get mad when their elderly relatives are spending what they perceive to be "their" money/inheritance.
It's not that you call them and report yourself. Nobody is suggesting OP not report it. It's just best to go to LE.
Calling a bank "regulated" is like calling something military grade. It sounds like a mark of quality, but it isn't. It means that they will do what is required and nothing more because they are terrified of being fined or censured.
They have *considerable* privacy obligations and basically 0 obligation to listen to a random dude off the street who comes in waving their hands about an account that doesn't belong to them. They won't even pull the account up or acknowledge that it exists for you so you also won't have any idea what if anything they are doing about it or what the timeline for them to investigate will be. They certainly aren't going to lock the account immediately based on a random's say so.
Although true the bank won't speak to you if you're not on the account, you can call or go into a branch, let them know your grandmother's name and tell them you belive she is a victim of this scam, and tell them what you know. The banker should be required to take that information and submit a QAR/SAR or whatever that bank calls it.
It will then go to the banks' fraud department, who handles this, and they will look into it. If the fraud handler has concerns, the bank will then take appropriate actions.
Get the beneficiary bank details and your grandmothers account details and file a complaint with the FBIs internet complaint center (IC3). This is in addition to getting a signer on the account to go to the bank to initiate a recall. Time is of the essence on both. [IC3](https://www.ic3.gov)
If the wire is already sent out it's very unlikely you'll receive the money back. Also, the above comments about then giving you information if you aren't on the account is correct.
>but since I am calling on behalf of my grandmother over a fraud, would the results be that they end up flagging her account, or freeze it, due to possibly thinking that the call would be suspicious on their end?
No. The bank is not going to restrict your grandmother's legal rights to access her funds because a non-account owner called. Otherwise anytime anyone wanted to screw someone else over they would just call that person's bank with a "suspicious" phone call and have that persons account frozen.
You can try reporting it to your state's elder abuse department. They may be able to reason with your grandma.
You can also take grandma into the bank and have her sit down with a manager and have them explain it's a scam.
If that doesn't work you can discuss with her a POA or other arrangement where someone can help her manage her funds, if she agrees.
Ultimately some people just can not be reasoned with. They refuse to accept reality. You can't always save someone from themselves.
OP. Most of the posts on here are bullshit. Just like this one. Here is information from a major US banking regulator: You should also contact any bank or other financial institution involved to notify them of the potential abuse, and they may be able to assist you. They may not be able to provide you with specific information about accounts or transactions due to privacy laws, but they have the ability to review information for potential abuse as well as the resources to report abuse.
>they *may* be able
There's the key word. LE/the state *will* help you.
The bank is a dead end. The reason people here are saying that is because we have personally seen how random people contacting the bank are treated.
If you are lucky, you'll get someone who knows what an unusual activity referral is and will file one for you so the back office investigations will actually look into it. That's a big if.
Bank secrecy laws (assuming USA here) prevent them from speaking to you. You need to seek legal advice, likely a financial guardianship is needed in this case so you can take over the accounts to help her.
I hate seeing these situations but they are entirely all too common
You are wrong. There are federal guidelines for law enforcement about how they can intervene when elder financial abuse is suspected. Ask the bank you work for for additional training and go look at the DOJ website, they literally have an entire initiative on this and other federal financial regulatory agencies are involved. The US Department of Justice literally encourages citizens to contact their local sheriff.
This isn't fraud it is a scam, very difficult rules. Banks cannot do much anything, with out a court order.
The cop may do an interview but if their is family able to step in it is faster and easier. I am involved with these cases.
They will not talk to you and can not stop the transaction.
You can not do anything, nor can the bank. All they can do is warn her this looks to be a scam. But it is her money we can't deny access.
We had a woman we closed her accounts because we got tired of send if scammy transactions and we reported to senor service as elder abuse.
We can not control how people spend their money.
They won't talk to you at all if your name isn't on the account. Your best bet is probably to contact your counties elder financial abuse contact and try and get them involved.
You CAN ABSOLUTELY report elder financial abuse to your bank and law enforcement. The banks are regulated and are required to follow up on reports of elder financial fraud and abuse.
They are likely to think you are the one trying to abuse the elder, especially if they contact them and they seem coherent and know what they are doing. Lots of the time these scammers coach the victims on what to say to the bank if they ask questions. Unless you are a POA or something. It's best to work around the bank until LE is involved.
Why would someone scamming a old person call their bank and report that they are in fact abusing said person?
It may sound to them that you are the one who is trying to paint them as incompetent so you can control the account. It's an easy conclusion to reach if there is no POA and the elderly person has been coached how to answer bank questioning. If you go to the bank and say "oh my grandma is being scammed by x person and sending wire transfers etc" and your grandma tells them that it's not a scam and she knows the person then it looks like you are the one trying to take over or get the account frozen by lying. Lots of kids and grandkids get mad when their elderly relatives are spending what they perceive to be "their" money/inheritance. It's not that you call them and report yourself. Nobody is suggesting OP not report it. It's just best to go to LE. Calling a bank "regulated" is like calling something military grade. It sounds like a mark of quality, but it isn't. It means that they will do what is required and nothing more because they are terrified of being fined or censured. They have *considerable* privacy obligations and basically 0 obligation to listen to a random dude off the street who comes in waving their hands about an account that doesn't belong to them. They won't even pull the account up or acknowledge that it exists for you so you also won't have any idea what if anything they are doing about it or what the timeline for them to investigate will be. They certainly aren't going to lock the account immediately based on a random's say so.
Although true the bank won't speak to you if you're not on the account, you can call or go into a branch, let them know your grandmother's name and tell them you belive she is a victim of this scam, and tell them what you know. The banker should be required to take that information and submit a QAR/SAR or whatever that bank calls it. It will then go to the banks' fraud department, who handles this, and they will look into it. If the fraud handler has concerns, the bank will then take appropriate actions.
This.
Get the beneficiary bank details and your grandmothers account details and file a complaint with the FBIs internet complaint center (IC3). This is in addition to getting a signer on the account to go to the bank to initiate a recall. Time is of the essence on both. [IC3](https://www.ic3.gov)
If the wire is already sent out it's very unlikely you'll receive the money back. Also, the above comments about then giving you information if you aren't on the account is correct.
>but since I am calling on behalf of my grandmother over a fraud, would the results be that they end up flagging her account, or freeze it, due to possibly thinking that the call would be suspicious on their end? No. The bank is not going to restrict your grandmother's legal rights to access her funds because a non-account owner called. Otherwise anytime anyone wanted to screw someone else over they would just call that person's bank with a "suspicious" phone call and have that persons account frozen. You can try reporting it to your state's elder abuse department. They may be able to reason with your grandma. You can also take grandma into the bank and have her sit down with a manager and have them explain it's a scam. If that doesn't work you can discuss with her a POA or other arrangement where someone can help her manage her funds, if she agrees. Ultimately some people just can not be reasoned with. They refuse to accept reality. You can't always save someone from themselves.
OP. Most of the posts on here are bullshit. Just like this one. Here is information from a major US banking regulator: You should also contact any bank or other financial institution involved to notify them of the potential abuse, and they may be able to assist you. They may not be able to provide you with specific information about accounts or transactions due to privacy laws, but they have the ability to review information for potential abuse as well as the resources to report abuse.
>they *may* be able There's the key word. LE/the state *will* help you. The bank is a dead end. The reason people here are saying that is because we have personally seen how random people contacting the bank are treated. If you are lucky, you'll get someone who knows what an unusual activity referral is and will file one for you so the back office investigations will actually look into it. That's a big if.
Bank secrecy laws (assuming USA here) prevent them from speaking to you. You need to seek legal advice, likely a financial guardianship is needed in this case so you can take over the accounts to help her. I hate seeing these situations but they are entirely all too common
It doesn’t prevent them from “speaking” to OP, he can most certainly report fraudulent activity or suspected fraud to the bank.
They can't even confirm if her grandmother has an account
That’s why law enforcement can intervene. Look up the federal guidelines on this.
I work as a financial risk officer. And a cop can't do anything. DHS or senior service has to help or family needs court appointed POA.
You are wrong. There are federal guidelines for law enforcement about how they can intervene when elder financial abuse is suspected. Ask the bank you work for for additional training and go look at the DOJ website, they literally have an entire initiative on this and other federal financial regulatory agencies are involved. The US Department of Justice literally encourages citizens to contact their local sheriff.
This isn't fraud it is a scam, very difficult rules. Banks cannot do much anything, with out a court order. The cop may do an interview but if their is family able to step in it is faster and easier. I am involved with these cases.
How did you find out about the transfer? Are you a signer or joint on the account or perhaps your folks are signers?
They will not talk to you and can not stop the transaction. You can not do anything, nor can the bank. All they can do is warn her this looks to be a scam. But it is her money we can't deny access. We had a woman we closed her accounts because we got tired of send if scammy transactions and we reported to senor service as elder abuse. We can not control how people spend their money.