Caller ID said Charles Schwab. It was a scammer who stole nearly $3K

SANDY — If you got a call from your bank telling you a crook had hacked into your account, you'd be worried.

That's the call one Sandy man got. But it turns out it wasn't his financial institution calling. It was a crook.

William Van Noy was in the middle of a workout in his basement when his phone rang.

The caller ID said "Charles Schwab," and the caller said someone was trying to steal $2,900 from his account.

To secure his money, Van Noy was told to hand over his username, password and security codes.

"I completely just blew it," he said.

Seconds after ending the call, Van Noy suspected it was fraud and ran upstairs to log into his Schwab account.

"And I ran upstairs, got on my computer and got into the account. Sure enough, $2,900 in red, transferred. Gone," he said.

William remembered something he'd seen in a Get Gephardt report: If you realize you've been scammed, call the bank immediately. So, he immediately called the real Charles Schwab.

"Let's freeze it or do something, whatever you do," he recalled telling the financial institution.

William says he was urgent, but he's not so sure Charles Schwab was.

"She says, 'All I can tell you is we started the investigation,'" he said.

Six days later, he says he got another call from the financial institution.

"She said, 'Mr. Van Noy, I'm sorry, but your money is gone,'" he said.

Van Noy says he wants Schwab to reimburse him — but that's not going to happen.

The KSL Investigators reached out to Charles Schwab through its public relations department.

In an email, a spokesperson said the financial institution acted quickly.

"When he reported the suspected fraud, Schwab immediately restricted online access, opened an investigation, initiated a wire recall request, and contacted the receiving institution. Unfortunately, once funds leave an account, they are extremely difficult to recover because fraudsters often move them almost immediately."

Digging deeper, we found that Utah law does provide rules for canceling wire transfer orders. But once a transfer has already been accepted, getting it reversed is not guaranteed.

Related:

Scammers are costing Utah millions — here's how to protect yourself

Utahns lost more than $2.5 million dollars in scams in 2025, according to AARP. Here are the most common scams and what older adults can do to avoid becoming a victim.

Federal data shows Van Noy is far from alone.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, Americans reported roughly $16 billion in fraud losses in 2025, up about 25% from the year before.

Of that, $3.5 billion was lost to imposter scams. Bank impersonators produced the largest reported losses among business impersonators.

As for Van Noy, he's out almost $3,000 and is now a sad statistic for this year's imposter fraud numbers.

Van Noy said he does take responsibility.

"I made the big mistake," Van Noy said.

Schwab said prevention is the best defense. The financial institution urged clients to protect their personal information, never share authentication codes and verify unexpected communications using a trusted contact number.

That means if you get an unexpected call claiming to be from your bank or financial institution, don't rely on the caller ID. Hang up and call the institution directly using a number you know is legitimate.

Related topics