I was on a joint savings account with my grandma to be able to help her pay her bills if something ever happened to her without having a power of attorney. Unfortunately, she fell for a romance scam. I was alerted of the first 20,000 she wired to the scammer, but she had a believable excuse so I let it go. She constantly shuffles money around her personal accounts and she said she was moving it for an investment. She was mad that chase alerted me, and proceeded to withdraw the rest of the money out of that account. She opened a new savings account in her name only and deposited that money into that new savings account. She proceeded to withdraw another 25,000 from her new sole savings account. Then a few weeks later another 15,000. She sent both of those withdrawals to the scammer vis something like Western Union I'm guessing. Chase froze all of the accounts in her name after that last 15,000 had been withdrawn. My personal accounts got frozen in the crossfire because she was listed as a joint owner on my accounts. We've since gotten my personal accounts unfrozen by removing her from my accounts as Chase no longer wishes to bank with her.
I checked the documents from Chase, it says that both joint owners can choose to do whatever they want with the money in the joint account without the other's permission. Do I have any options on trying to recover any of this money or am I just out of luck?
Joint owner at Chase fell for a scam. Any recourse options?
byu/immapikachu inpersonalfinance
Posted by immapikachu
8 Comments
You have no recourse here. You were listed as joint owners of the account. She has every right to withdraw her money from her account and do what she wants with it.
I mean, you admit at the beginning you’re only listed on this account so that you could step in and use her money to pay her bills for her, if something happened to her. This is otherwise her money, and not yours…..right? So what argument do you think you have to tell her bank she had no right to withdraw this money? I get it, you’re presumably trying to find an angle to help your grandmother recover some of this money. But the idea that this was actually your money that she withdrew seems to be a lie. To say nothing for the fact that as a joint account owner, she would be within her rights to withdraw that cash. If the argument is that your grandmother took your money from the account, your recourse would be to sue your grandmother for that money.
Recover the money? How? Ask the scammer for a refund?
The bank did a legit transfer of funds by an authorized account holder. It’s not like someone “hacked” the account.
Maybe next time gram does a 20,000 cash withdrawal you don’t take it so casually.
report it to the fbi
[ic3.gov](http://ic3.gov)
[https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/scams-and-safety/common-frauds-and-scams/romance-scams](https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/scams-and-safety/common-frauds-and-scams/romance-scams)
Sorry grandma got scammed. Maybe you need to remove all access she has to her accounts. And become a financial custodians
Visit rscams to ask more questions there about the romance scam in particular.
If someone contacts you telling you they can recover the money, understand that THIS, TOO IS A SCAM.
Definitely file a report with FBI/police. With that information you may be able to get Chase to tell you where the money went, and if so there is a very small possibility that you may be able to recover some of the funds. But probably not.
Being a joint bank holder with the elderly (instead of power of attorney) can cause issues when that person passes if theres other family members in their will. Ask me how I know.
Don’t kick yourself too hard. Scammers are *professional* manipulators, and they have this down to a science. They coached her on exactly what to say to you to get you to back off, and how to pull her money out so you didn’t have a chance to stop her.
It’s a common problem
You’re doing a good thing by telling people what happened so they can try to protect their loved ones.