ATLANTA — A metro Atlanta woman woke up to email notifications that her savings account was closed and all her money was transferred out.
The financial institution thought she did it. The customer is adamant that she did nothing wrong.
In this case, it involved Chime, which is not technically a bank but essentially functions like one.
Jada Wilkinson told Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray that she got multiple calls that day from a phone number that came up as Chime, but she did not answer, suspecting they were scams.
By the next morning, her money was gone anyway. All $2,000.
“I work full-time, I’m also a full-time student, so when you take out $2,000 from my account, especially with this economy, it really does put a hurt on me,” Wilkinson said.
And she said she did nothing wrong.
Wilkinson didn’t share her account information with a scammer. She did not click a link she shouldn’t have.
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She just woke up on a Saturday morning to notifications that her savings account was closed and her money had been transferred to a person she didn’t recognize.
“You didn’t give anyone login information, you didn’t click on anything. As far as you know, you did nothing to give someone access to your time again?” Gray asked Wilkinson.
“No, I have no idea how they got access. I have no idea how they were able to close out my account and transfer out the money,” Wilkinson said.
Chime is an online-only financial technology company that offers the same kinds of products as traditional banks.
Wilkinson signed up because they offer early payments on direct deposits, but they are targeted by the same kinds of scams and fraud as big banks are facing.
Erik Beguin of Austin Capital Bank said the fraud attacks are big business themselves, usually hundreds or even thousands of people working together, often in Southeast Asia.
“They’re using the latest AI tools and they’re innovating rapidly to try to defraud Americans, and banks and credit unions are having a really tough time keeping up because we have rules and regulations and they have nothing,” Beguin said.
In Wilkinson’s case, Chime denied her fraud claim, writing that, “No error occurred and therefore no funds will be credited to your account.”
“They tell me that I was the one who closed out both of my accounts and that I was the one who authorized the transaction to go to another recipient, which I never did,” Wilkinson said.
Gray contacted Chime, who sent him a statement, saying:
“We take matters like this very seriously, and our team thoroughly reviews these cases. While privacy considerations prevent us from disclosing individual member data, we stand by the decisions based on our investigations.”
“I’m trying not to think about it because the more I think about the more upset I get because I work hard for that money right now. I just want it back. That’s it. Simply,” Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson said her latest appeal to Chime was denied. She has also filed a police report with Roswell police.
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