Woman Caught in Online Banking Fraud Says She Was Only Doing Her Job

An Adel woman was referred to the West Des Moines Police Department to file a report after her new job turned out to be a scam.

The victim said she answered an advertisement for a job to distribute money to the company’s clients via Western Union and Money Gram  from funds the company said it would deposit in her account at a West Des Moines credit union. She was under the impression she would keep 8 percent of the $5,000, or $400.

Earlier this month, she received an email informing her that $5,000 had been deposited in her account and she had a two-hour window to withdraw the money and distribute it to clients whose account information was included in the email.

She followed the directions after distributing the funds, then redeposited her share.

A few days later, she received an email from a fraud investigator from USAA Federal Savings Bank looking into the theft of $5,000 from an account that had been wired to the Adel woman’s account.

She reportedly told the investigator that she was only following instructions. The investigator directed her to make a police report and Adel authorities referred her to West Des Moines, where her credit union is located.

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