Restore Hope For Elderly Fraud Victim

Hi.

My name is Michael O'Donnell, and I am fundraising for Anne Murphy of Spring, Texas, who is a lady I met through Church. What has happened to her has happened to so many elderly people in this new world of computers, and each story you hear is worse than the one before.

This is her story:

The morning of August 18, 2022, began like any other. I went to my computer to look for messages and to check my banking records.

Suddenly, everything changed. The computer cursor began to move without my activation and the screen locked down with a Microsoft logo and verbal instructions coming out from the computer announcing a "fraud surveillance alert" from "Microsoft" of a possible breach of $14,300 on one of my accounts and it advised me to call them. The lady that answered at "Microsoft" checked my account and confirmed an alert for a possible banking breach for $14,300 from a suspicious website and she transferred me to 'Edward, a fraud agent'. Edward identified himself as a government representative assisting "Microsoft" with suspicious website activities. He advised me he had control of my computer and he believed it was possible my computer and android may likely have been breached. He asked if I had "considered more secure banking options and putting my money in other alternatives." He suggested I could transfer my account to a secure Federal account until my bank could determine the origin of the breaching attempts. At that point I placed him on hold, and contacted customer service at my bank to check if there was any withdrawal attempt on any of my accounts for $14,300, and I was told there was "no" indication of this. I then told Edward that no attempt had been made on my accounts and that I had to go because I had a critical medical appointment for my chemotherapy at 1 p.m. and that I had to be on time, and I would not be able to continue my conversation with him. He said they were alerted and would be watching for any incoming threat and they would contact and alert my bank about this. I told him not to do anything further regarding my accounts until he heard back from me. I then shut down my computer and left for my appointment..

At 4:15 p.m., I arrived home and opened my email to find a 1:07 p.m. email from my bank telling me a wire transfer was being processed. It said that if I did not submit this transfer, to call online customer service. At this point it was apparent to me that I had not been communicating with "Microsoft". I called Customer Service at my bank at 4:23 p.m. to question the emailed transaction notice and was promptly transferred to a man in the fraud department, who said the funds were being transferred to California. I immediately asked him to stop the transfer because I did not order it and it had to be a fraud. He was totally unconcerned and said he thought it had already gone out, but he absolutely refused to check on the status of the wire, and when I asked him to put me on hold and call the bank in California, where it was then about 2:30 p.m., to ask that it hold the funds being wired, he said the bank had no procedures for him to do that and he could not call the bank.

I had never in my life sent a wire from my account. I have since learned that when a wire is ordered, my bank sends a code to my phone, which I am supposed to then input online to my bank, thus verifying the wire transfer. The bank says the code was sent to my cell phone number, and then properly input online with the bank. The bank then sent the wire.

What this means is that the hacker not only got into my computer, he must have also gotten into my cell phone to intercept the text that sent the code from the bank. My phone records from my carrier show a text sent from the bank, but I never saw it. Apparently, the hacker somehow deleted the text from the phone , after he received the code.

The next effect of all this was that the hacker stole $23,800, which was almost all of my savings. I am a single woman in my late 70s, living alone, fighting cancer, and now devastated by the loss of what little financial cushion I had saved up over the years.

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I honestly felt my bank, after 35 years as a customer, should have been willing to do more to protect me, but after over a year of pleading with the bank, it has shown no willingness to do anything to help me. Its position is that it did not steal my money, a fraudster did, and the bank only followed its rules in sending the money that, so far as it is concerned, I authorized. Obviously, the bank knows I did not do that, but I am held accountable as if I had done it. So, all the money is gone, I have no ability to replace it, and I am inconsolable.

I hope there is a special place in the hereafter for people like the hackers who prey on elderly people like this unfortunate lady.

All funds raised net of GoFundMe charges will go directly to Anne, to help make up for what was so heartlessly taken from her.

I am making the first donation. Please do what you can to help her.

Thank you.