§ 01The brief
The client's daughter found the wire receipt and a stack of gift card receipts that afternoon. Her mother had wired $512,000 and bought $28,000 in gift cards from three issuers. The scammer had already redeemed some of the cards.
§ 02What I did
- 1.
Stayed on a three-way call while the family called the bank's fraud line to recall the wire, then called each card issuer with the card numbers and receipts.
- 2.
Asked each issuer specifically to freeze any remaining balance and open a fraud claim.
- 3.
Filed the FAE report and a local police report the same evening, at no charge because of the client's age.
§ 03The outcome
The receiving bank froze $347,000 of the wire before it was withdrawn, and two gift cards still held $9,000 between them. All of it was returned within five weeks.