CICERO, Ill. (CBS) – An elderly suburban couple was scammed out of thousands of dollars they were saving for their own funerals.
They didn’t click on any suspicious links or answer any spam phone calls. All they did was mail a check.
It might not be something an 88-year-old grandma might say.
“I feel like a criminal!” said Dinah Zaragoza.
But every since the Zaragozas sent in a check for their gas bill, the couple sparked an investigation by U.S. Bank.
“We never receive updates or explanations,” she said.
A close look at a carbon copy in Dinah’s checkbook would reveal the problem. In two areas, she wrote $62 for a July 15 check to Nicor Gas, but the same check arrived at the bank with a very different amount: $4,200.
“I was stunned because there is no bill that I would have been paying that amount,” Zaragoza said.
It appeared that Dinah and Pedro, her husband of 70 years, were the victims of a modern-day scam called “check washing.”