While having supper Thursday evening, I received a call from a 212 number claiming to be from Chase Bank. Normally, I don’t answer calls during dinner — especially not from unfamiliar area codes — but for personal reasons, I made an exception this time. The caller identified himself and immediately asked about a couple of Zelle transactions on my account. Each was for several thousand dollars and had been flagged by the bank as potentially fraudulent. The money was being sent to someone whose name I didn’t recognize. After confirming with my wife that she hadn’t authorized any transactions either, the caller assured me he would mark them as fraudulent and “freeze” my Zelle account for 24 to 48 hours for my protection. He then provided a case number, cancellation codes for each transaction, and the name of the person assigned to handle my fraud case. After that, he transferred me to someone claiming to be a Zelle representative to continue processing the cancellation. The Zelle rep, “Doug Marshall,” was professional and courteous. He explained the next steps and seemed genuinely focused on helping me cancel the charges. But something didn’t sit right. Even as I followed along, I had a nagging feeling that something was off. I googled the number that had called me — it was indeed a Chase Bank number. Still uneasy, I logged into my online banking accounts — Chase and others — to double-check if any of these Zelle transactions had actually posted. Nothing. No record of them anywhere. Doug continued walking me through the process, explaining that the transactions were supposedly sent from an iPhone Pro Max 11 in Buffalo, NY — a detail that matched what the Chase agent had told me earlier. It sounded convincing. But then things took a turn. Doug asked me to create a Zelle user named “Noel Peralta,” using the 10-digit case number as the Zelle ID. I was instructed to input the cancellation codes from Chase into the dollar amount field, and to type “StpPmnt1500mnt” into the reason field. That was the moment my gut instinct screamed: Stop. I told Doug I wasn’t comfortable going forward with the transaction and that I would hang up and call back to verify everything. He remained calm and understanding and even offered to transfer me back to the original “Chase agent.” When that agent returned, I explained my hesitation and my plan to verify the situation directly with the bank. He tried to discourage me. At some point, he placed me on hold — and that’s when I hung up. I immediately called the official Chase fraud department. Sure enough — it was all a scam! As someone who considers himself fairly tech-savvy and cautious, I was surprised by how sophisticated and convincing this scam was. The level of detail, the smoothness of the handoffs, the professionalism of the callers — all of it was crafted to lower your guard. Signed, J.L. The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review.