Scam victim owes Chase Bank $40,000

We've been telling you about the "fake check" scam for years, but now scammers are throwing a curveball that we haven't seen before and we want to warn you about it right away.

There's a thousand ways the "fake check" scam can start out but it always ends in the same pattern: A stranger sends you a check, tells you to deposit it, and take part of the money and wire it via Western Union to a third party. The check turns out to be a fake and you then owe your bank all the money you withdrew. It's an absolutely devastating situation for the victim. This new twist doesn't involve a fake check. Our viewer got caught after stolen money was directly deposited into her account

"I've been unemployed for 20 months."

So when HR professional Genny Villa received an email from a company called Universus she got excited. They were in the "data mining" business and looking for managers to open up the Arizona market.

"The idea of making some money and actually working was something I really wanted to do."

Genny says she went through a rigorous application process, but it was all by email. Genny says Universus was vague on what "data mining" meant but her job would entail making payments to clients.

"For like the first 30 days, because they weren't set up in Arizona yet she wanted to know if I would set up a checking account and they would put money into it."

Money did go into a new account Genny set up at Chase Bank. Over 36 hours, she withdrew about $30,000 and wired it to Universus clients all over the world. But then something didn't feel right so she quit. Genny says she even expressed her concerns to a Chase Bank branch employee.

"All I want to do is get rid of this money. I feel very uncomfortable about it; he didn't have any comments for me at all, he just said okay."

Genny says the Chase Bank employee even helped her wire another $10,000. Days later Chase Bank froze Genny's account, told her it was overdrawn by $39,000, and she needed to pay up right away or face collections. Turns out, the money deposited into her account had been stolen from another Chase Bank customer.

"They tracked it, the money went into my account, I withdrew it, therefore, I was responsible for it."

Genny says Chase Bank has told her this sort of scam is common. She's angry at the scammers taking advantage of the unemployed but also at Chase Bank.

"If this is happening to people like myself, then they (Chase) need to come up with a process of recognizing it sooner and stopping it at the very beginning."

Chase Bank unknowingly allowed thieves to steal money from one customer (and they say they did return the money to that victim) and they even helped Genny wire funds after she expressed concerns that this was a scam. But right now, they're not taking any responsible for this problem.

Chase Bank wants Genny to come up with the $40,000 before the end of December or they're going to send it to collections (which they have the legal right to do).

I called Universus in Canada. It turns out, they're victims too! They had absolutely nothing to do with this scam and never even heard of our viewer. The scammers found the Universus website and impersonated them in order to scam Genny. The company president thanked me for letting him know.

One phone call to the employer, to verify it is actually hiring, could help anyone avoid this scam altogether. I've expressed my concerns to Chase Bank that they are not treating our viewer fairly, and they say their investigation in still on-going. When they make a final decision on this case.. I'll let you know.