Help Fr. Robert "Bob" Banzin

My name is Deacon Randy Belice and my wife Paula Jo and I are fundraising on behalf of Fr. Robert Banzin, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago for nearly 60 years.

Fr. Banzin has been an educator, an Associate Pastor for several parishes including St. Mary church in Riverside (now St. Paul VI parish), St. John of the Cross parish in Western Springs and St. John Brebeuf parish in Niles.

At age 85, he continues to be a weekend celebrant at St. Paul VI parish serving at the Mater Christi and St Mary worship sites.

On August 17th of 2023, Fr. Banzin became the unfortunate victim of a financial scam that decimated his life savings, stealing a total of $61,800. He was left with just $1645.00 in his bank accounts.

The financial scam began on August 7th with a fraudulent e-mail that advised him of a charge to his Pay-Pal account from eBay in the amount of $699.00

Fr. Banzin, like so many of us who have used Pay-Pal as a safe intermediary for on-line transactions, saw this as an immediate “red flag” as he had not made any recent purchases using the Pay-Pal service.

Obviously alarmed he did a quick web search for the Pay-Pal customer support phone number using Google.

Unfortunately, the scammers were able to place their fraudulent phone number above the actual Pay-Pal number in the list of information the Google search engine returned to him.

The “so-called” support person who answered his call advised him that his accounts had been “hacked” and that they would help him remove the hackers from his accounts and recover the fraudulent charge.

He followed their directions implicitly, and over the course of several days and many back-and-forth conversations, they gained his trust as they “guided” him to provide them with his personal account information under the guise of re-establishing and restoring his account.

During this time however, he located the correct number for Pay-Pal support, called them and was advised that there were no improper charges to his account, nor had there ever been.

It was at this time that he discovered that scammers had wire transferred nearly all the money from his accounts.

He contacted his bank for help however was advised that because he provided the account information to the scammers, they were not at fault nor were they liable for his loss.

Although Fr. Banzin receives social security and a small monthly pension from the Archdiocese of Chicago, he is currently finding it difficult to meet his monthly living expenses for housing, food, gas, taxes, medical, etc.

His life savings were his safety net and that security is now gone.

He retained an attorney, filed a report with the FBI and with the Office of Consumer Protection for the Illinois Attorney General and the Chicago Police Department's Financial Crimes Unit continues to investigate the case.

His attorney advised him however, there is little chance of any recovery of his assets as scammers are very good at their fraudulent trade and cover their tracks leaving little or no trace of their true identities.

First, this appeal is a cautionary tale to never provide personal bank account information to anyone over the phone, regardless of the perceived situation.

Second, while we will most likely not be able to replace his life savings and mitigate his loss, it is our hope that as a community we can come together to help replace a portion of it, to allow him to live with some sense of financial security.

Over many years, Fr. Banzin has been such an important part of our lives and continues to touch our hearts and souls through his preaching and ministry to the Church.

Fr. Banzin is a gift to all of us and it is our hope you will join us in this appeal and share it with others in a spirit of justice and mercy. Please contribute as you can to help him during this most difficult time of loss and need.

All donations are considered a gift and are not tax deductible.