Utah Judge Dismisses Scammer Victim’s Claims vs. Wells Fargo Bank, JPMorgan Chase

U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish for Utah in Salt Lake City adopted "in full" U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin Pead's Dec. 27 report and recommendation (see 2312280017) and dismissed without prejudice Jillane Pope’s claims against Wells Fargo Bank and JPMorgan Chase, said Parrish’s signed order Monday (docket 2:23-cv-00086). No party filed a timely objection to Pead’s report, “and any argument that it was in error has thus been waived,” said the order. Pead’s report said he was “sympathetic” to Pope’s “plight” as a victim of text-phishing scammers, but he found that the law “is not on her side to recover her losses.” A pro se plaintiff, Pope received a text in October 2022 from someone impersonating a Geek Squad employee and saying Best Buy charged her its yearly service fee, said Pead’s report. What then transpired was “an unfortunate series of events” that led Pope to inadvertently wire $29,000 from her Wells Fargo account to an account at JPMorgan Chase that belonged to the scammers, it said. Pope’s complaint claimed Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase knew a theft was in progress and failed to prevent it in violation of their alleged duties, it said.