New York Elder Scammed Out of Nearly $285,000, Funds Converted to Cryptocurrency Hard to Recover

Odaily 80-year-old New Yorker George Chryssanthou was scammed out of nearly $285,000 and has filed an arbitration claim with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) against Charles Schwab over the matter.

On January 17, 2025, scammers posing as "Microsoft technical support" called Chryssanthou, remotely controlled his computer under the pretext of fixing a software issue, and claimed his account had been hacked. The scammers then tricked the victim into providing verification codes. Over several days, they transferred funds in batches via wire transfers to an account named "Coinbase Inc" at Cross River Bank in New Jersey, with amounts ranging from $18,000 to $90,000, totaling $284,650. The funds were immediately converted to cryptocurrency and transferred away. The victim only discovered his balance was zero when he logged into his account on January 29. After the FBI intervened, they informed him that the chances of recovering the funds were extremely low.

In September 2025, Chryssanthou, represented by lawyer Adam Gana, filed a claim with FINRA, accusing Charles Schwab of failing to fulfill its supervisory duties, including not verifying or intercepting the unusually frequent wire transfers and the suspicious recipient account. (Business Insider)