Third-Party Restitution for Fraud Victims
If you’ve been watching our channel for a while, you know that one of the most common suggestions we have for fraud victims is to look at third-party restitution. Many times the scammer or fraudster that took your money may not have all of it to give you back. Sometimes a recovery of that money requires that you look at third parties. Many of the biggest recoveries we’ve done for clients have included a large chunk of contribution by third parties that weren’t really part of the scam, but they let it happen or allowed it to get bigger.
Case Example Involving Wells Fargo
This is a perfect example of one of those cases. This is a person who was defrauded out of tens of thousands of dollars and Wells Fargo Bank was their bank. Nothing wrong with Wells Fargo. They’re a good bank, solid bank, but the scammer took money from them. And because Wells Fargo maybe made it easier or didn’t do all the things they could do, the victim claimed that Wells Fargo owed them money for enabling or extending this fraud. And they fought it and they won and they got back $40,000 from these fraudulent transactions on their account. This is an important example of where third-party liability, you don’t want to give up on it.
Broadening the Scope of Responsibility
Whether it’s a bank, an accountant, an attorney, even advertising platforms, you want to make sure that any third parties that have any kind of liability for making this fraud easier for the scammer are looked at in terms of a possible source of recovery. When we do investigations, we look and list out any third parties that might have potential exposure to your case, and it’d be up to others to decide exactly how that would work. But third-party liability is a real thing. This is a perfect example of it.
Timing and Final Reminder
This is from March of 2025 within a few days of when this video is being recorded. So, getting money back from a scam isn’t just as simple as just getting it from the scammer. Sometimes you can get it from other places and get all the money back rather than just a percentage.
