Bank Employee Busts Multi-Million Dollar Scam

Everyone knows the importance of customer service. But a bank manager in Midland, Michigan went above and beyond the call of duty by putting a stop to a scam against one of his bank's elderly customers, protecting other victims from losing millions.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on July 21 2009

Everyone knows the importance of customer service. But Carl Ahearn, a bank manager in Midland, Michigan went above and beyond the call of duty by putting a stop to a scam against one of his bank’s elderly customers, preventing her from losing much of her life savings.

It started last December, when the customer, 80-year-old Marion Case, walked into Ahearn’s branch and asked to withdraw $25,000 from her account. She told him that she would be giving the money to her son—but Ahearn knew there was something else going on, so he decided to investigate the situation and make sure that she wasn’t getting defrauded out of her money.

“We have long-term relationships with a lot of our customers,” Ahearn told the Detroit News. “We know what they do and what they wouldn’t normally do.”

Ahearn followed Case to the nearby post office, and watched as she stuffed the money into an Express Mail envelope and wrote a man’s address on it. After she passed the envelope over to the postal clerk and left, Ahearn walked in to share his concerns with the clerk, asking the office to investigate the situation before sending the woman’s money. The post office officials agreed, and soon discovered that the intended recipient of Case’s money was a former flight attendent who had already scammed many people into giving him hundreds of thousands of dollars, under the false premise that they had won nearly $1 million in a lottery sweepstakes, and would have to send payment for “processing fees” to collect their winnings. Thanks to Ahearn’s tip-off, the man was quickly arrested for mail fraud, and the case is now under investigation.

Unfortunately for Case, she had already sent an initial $25,775 payment to the fraudster the previous month. Officials aren’t certain if she will recover all of her money, but they plan to return her envelope containing $25,000, and hope to ensure that the other people who fell prey to the fake lottery scheme will see as much of their money back as possible.

If it wasn’t for Ahearn’s interest in his customer, the scammer may have gotten away with millions of dollars from unsuspecting victims.

“We’re just grateful that citizens are willing to go above and beyond to make sure those who do things wrong pay for their actions,” said Wylie Christopher, spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Filed under: General Interest, Heroes,

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