Someone Stole More Than $500 From Her Chime Account, But Bank Wouldn't Reimburse Her Until CBS 2 Got Involved
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Morning Insiders came to the aid of a viewer who turned to us for help, after she had more than $500 disappear from her bank account, and couldn't convince the bank to give her the cash back.
CBS 2's Ryan Baker shows us how the money magically re-appeared, after we got involved.
Patricia Green reached out to CBS 2 after she says she discovered bogus transactions on her Chime spending account: nearly $70 at a gas station, and three back-to-back-to-back ATM withdrawals on the South Side of Chicago, more than 30 miles from her west suburban home.
"Five hundred dollars mean a lot to me when I have bills to pay," she said. "So I wanted to get to the bottom of it."
Green played detective, tracking those transactions to a 7-Eleven, so she called the store manager.
"There was a guy here, he just left the ATM, and she was willing to show me the footage," Green said.
Green filed a police report, and alerted Chime – an online bank – to the fraud.
"They emailed me back, and they told me that it wasn't an error," Green said.
Green persisted, and again Chime told her no fraud, no money back.
"Blew me off, which I don't think it's fair," she said.
So we reached out to Chime, and they re-examined the case.
"Since CBS 2 reached out, I guess it was a different outcome," Green said.
Green got an email acknowledging an error occurred, and more importantly, got her $530 back.
We still don't know exactly what happened, or who that mystery man is on the surveillance photos.
"Don't know this person, never seen this person," Green said.
So we turned to Governors State University Professor William Kresse, also known as Professor Fraud, for some answers.
The ATM withdrawals from Green's account were known as ''fallback transactions.'' That means the machine read her magnetic stripe, not the chip. Those stripes are much easier to clone than chips.
Kresse explained how the bad guys can do it, but we're not sharing that info for obvious reasons. Guess where this sort of scheme is most likely to work?
"There are still some old standalone ATMs. These are ones that you'll find in a convenience store, in a dry cleaner," Kresse said, just like the one where the transactions on Green's account took place.
"Now around the world, many credit cards only have the chip, and eventually the United States will move to that, because it's more secure," Kresse said.
As for Green, she's just grateful to have her money back.
"Thanks to CBS 2 investigation team for helping me out in this situation," she said.