A Washington state woman is suing Navy Federal Credit Union and Wells Fargo to restore the legacy and estate of her late uncle, whom scam artists had tricked into transferring more than $3.6 million to the Bangkok Bank.

Janine Satterfield, the niece of the late Larry Cook, is alleging the banks were negligent in allowing her uncle to initiate wire transfers 74 times from his accounts — even after one of the banks’ officials flagged Cook for review by Adult Protective Services.

Cook, of Fairfax County, Virginia, died in 2021 at age 76. In July 2019, he had suffered a stroke that disabled him and left him impaired.

He had an estate worth nearly $10 million, and had managed his late mother’s nearly $2 million estate.

After his stroke, Cook stopped responding to inquiries about his mother’s estate. He isolated himself and stopped filing income taxes.

Ms. Sattersfield’s lawsuit states that Cook had been conservative and diligent with finances before his health declined in 2019. But in October 2020, Cook received what his family believes to have been a scam email that appeared to be from Amazon and prompted him to transfer funds.

For the following six months until his death in April 2021, Cook continued to transfer money overseas. Nearly all payments were in the amount of $49,500 and labeled as loan repayment.

Around December 2020 — a couple months after the initial scam email — a Navy Federal Credit Union representative contacted Fairfax County Adult Protective Services to alert them of potential elder financial exploitation.

This, the lawsuit claims, showed that the bank was on notice about Cook’s inconsistent financial conduct.

“Given his medical status, his social isolation and enfeebled state, Mr. Cook was without capacity to manage his finances, and he was susceptible to financial exploitation and needed the protection of a conservator,” says the lawsuit, which was filed in January in the Eastern District of Virginia.

“Prior to this report, it appears that NFCU never questioned, reported, or even attempted to stop any of Mr. Cook’s international wires and instead, even after the APS Report was made, continued to process at least another forty-two (42) wires. The tortious conduct by NFCU was continuous over the incredibly brief period of time, ceasing only because of Mr. Cook’s death.”

The lawsuit seeks to have the banks repay the amount transferred and added costs.

A spokesperson for Wells Fargo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Navy Federal Credit Union spokesperson said customers are their top priority.

“Our members are always our first priority and we handle all member transactions with great care. Because this particular matter is currently pending in litigation, out of respect for the jurisdiction of the court, we will have no further comment,” the NFCU spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Bangkok Bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ms. Sattersfield said that defending her uncle’s estate has been emotional and that reform is needed so banks can better protect against this type of fraud for other families.

“For me, it’s been my life to defend him,” she told The Washington Times. “He had no record of wiring money in our assessment ever, so an international wire with my bank brokerage background is highly unusual and it should have been flagged immediately and at least delayed. Not one should have gone out.”

“It has been a daily event in almost solving a mystery, in defending his honor, in reclaiming what was wired out, which should in my opinion never have happened,” she added.

These types of lawsuits against banks following scams are relatively new, according to Satterfield attorney Kimberley Ann Murphy, who said some have been successful in getting the banks to go to mediation.

“We are finding that they are popping up more. I think this scam is relatively new … and they are all going to the same place — I think it is the Bank of Bangkok,” Ms. Murphy said, adding that her legal research has found several incidents. “Every single one of the victims involved were elderly and they were all sending wires in appropriately the amount of $49,500.”

According to the Justice Department statistics, roughly 592,990 people over the age of 65 experienced financial fraud in 2017.

A 2022 report on elder fraud from the FBI found occurrences are on the rise.

“In 2022, total losses reported to the [Internet Crime Complaint Center] by elderly victims increased 84% from 2021,” the report states.

Technical and customer support scams were the most common type reported, with more than 17,000 complaints filed with the FBI by victims over age 60.

Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention programming for AARP, said fraud has become unrecognizable because scammers are using personal information and even use phone numbers associated with banks.

She said reporting is undercounted because victims are embarrassed to come forward. According to Federal Trade Commission data from 2022, the losses from fraud was about $9 billion, Ms. Stokes said.

“The scammers are really good about getting us into a mindset where we can’t access logical thinking,” she said.

Her advice is for family members to talk to older relatives about online scams and what to watch out for in order to prevent loved ones from being scammed.

“There was a study done a couple years ago … that if you know about a specific scam, you’re 80% less likely to engage with it. That’s a big number, so we need to be talking more about it,” Ms. Stokes said.

• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.