The story is from the Chicago area. It’s hard to believe in this day and age stuff like this still happens:

A growing list of customers of U.S. Bank in Highwood, most of them Mexican immigrants who speak little English, say their savings and other accounts are missing or have been depleted without their permission…

“It’s sad,” Garrett said. “Many of these residents don’t trust anybody. They feel they might be deported.”

The allegations come as banks have been trying to build trust among immigrant populations, which the industry sees as an untapped customer base, experts say.

According to this article, immigrants have lost anywhere from $18,000 to $60,000 due to this scam. In most cases, this represents an entire life’s savings for the victims.

This is a major PR disaster for banks in general, the marketers of which have been trying to debunk the idea of banks ripping people off among Latino immigrants in building their Latino marketing campaigns.

Via / The Chicago Tribune