Scam — wire transfer recall not possible

Question

I've been scammed in an online investment by wiring 10,000 USD to a mule account. I called my bank the same day to get it recalled. The beneficiary bank, Bank of America (BofA), asked for a police report a week after, which I provided my bank to give to them.

Then, two months later BofA replied. My bank was saying BofA can't get hold of the account holder so they can't do anything about it right now, even though it's a scam.

1. What types of action can I take for the bank to do a recall?

2. Is it true that my bank can't do anything?

Answer 1

It is true - your bank can do nothing

You wired the money, then realized you'd been duped. It wasn't an unauthorized wire transfer. You authorized it. Things like and wire-transfers are designed so you cannot take it back.

Wire-transfers are not credit cards. Credit cards offer fraud protection to encourage use. Most of the time when you dispute a charge, the credit card company eats it because you're paying them 18% APR.

Never send money wire-transfer, Western-Union, or any other service that doesn't have a way to pull the money back.

The reason wire-transfers (and several other things) cannot be taken back is because the bank needs to act as a trusted 3rd party. Imagine if you sold a house and the buyer decided to "dispute" the payment.

EDIT - in response to comments.

Among other things in the links, this is important

the wire transfer is $50,000 or above

I'm sorry to keep giving you bad news, but your money is gone. These sites mention Western Union and Money Gram, both services used frequently by scammers.

Even if they could reverse the wire transfer, the money is likely long gone from the account. Who's gonna make up the difference?

Your Bank - Why would they, they were acting on your orders.

Receiving Bank - They got a legitimate wire transfer from your bank. Why would they take money from their customers to issue a refund on a legitimate transaction.

Scammer - Good luck tracking him down.

It hurts to hear, but you've just learned a $10,000 lesson. Scammers know how to take the money and run - it's their job. It sucks, but everyone on this site has lent money to a friend, or put it into an investment or business venture that went belly up. Sometimes you lose money for a dumb reason - that's life.

The best thing you can do is stop obsessing over it and move on. All the research and worry in the world won't bring it back.

Edit 2 - the bank employees did what you asked

From comments, it sounds like you're blaming the bank for your own bad decision. The bank employees are trying to be nice to you. The reason they don't seem interested is because they know what I (and everyone who upvoted) know - the money is gone.

They are not incompetent, they don't want to waste much time on a fruitless chase. Please be nice to them and work with them and law enforcement. That's the only way you'll see a cent returned to you (but don't count on it).

No amount of talking about SWIFT or anything else that Google tells you will change a thing

No one dressed up and impersonated you at the bank - you walked in and sent the money of your own free will. A few people got lucky and pulled the cash back before the account is emptied, you weren't one of them.

NOTE: The reason Google is giving you any hope at all is that wire transfers (especially international ones) aren't instantaneous. Usually, you have to wire it to a large/national bank, with instructions to wire it to the actual bank. Most of the time a human is involved and will only do this once or twice a day. Scammers know which national banks are automated and how to get their money fast.

Answer 2

Interbank transfers

When you send money to an account at another bank, the operation is usually as follows:

• The bank groups all transactions of this type, makes a "Batch" of this type and sends them.

• These transfers have considerable costs so they are not made individually

• Depending on the agility of the institution, number of transfers and the size of the bank, these "Batch" of shipments can be made once a day or every hour.

• Once this batch is executed, the money is no longer in the hands of the bank and it no longer has control over it.

There are official communication channels between banks to notify complaints about scams and money laundering. But these complaints can only be confirmed by a representative of the law and only under his instructions can they take action.

So, the cases in which the transfer can be reversed:

• It is while the bank has not yet processed the "Batch" where your transaction is.

• The account at the receiving bank is already being monitored by other scams

• Upon completion of the investigation and confirming the complaint as effective, the account is frozen and the receiving bank can return the remainder to those affected.

• Take into account that in many cases the transfers come from different victims and all the institutions handle different return policies.

These types of transfers are equivalent to delivering the money in the recipient's hand. Most banks do not do anything other than facilitate delivery.

Answer 3

You know the bank account of the person you sent the money to. You can file a civil suit in a local court for fraud. As part of the suit, you can subpeona your bank to furnish the names, addresses and phone nos of the person. The you can serve the person at his/her address. I hope you have filed a police report for fraud. Statute of limitation for a civil suit is 2 years, 3 years for fraud in CA.