Todd and Stephanie Evans are taking life one step at a time.There have been some health challenges after a near-fatal head-on car crash in March.”I’ve been in a wheelchair pretty much ever since,” Stephanie Evans said. “My life’s still not mine.”Now, the West Chester couple is facing another setback.It started with an unexpected phone call.”The guy says, ‘I’m David with the Chase fraud protection,’” Todd Evans said. The caller was inquiring about a suspicious charge of $96.43 from an out-of-state Walmart.”I pull out my phone to take a look at the account, and sure enough, there’s a charge for $96 and some change from a Walmart in West Virginia,” Todd Evans said. The Evanses did not make that purchase.”As he’s correcting it, he mentions, ‘Well, I also see a wire transfer initiated here,’ and I say, ‘Well, that was definitely not us,’” Todd Evans said.That wire transfer was for $45,000 to a Wells Fargo account belonging to a Mycheal Mitchell.At this point, the Evanses said they were a little skeptical, so they asked the caller if there was a way to verify who they were speaking to.”He said, ‘I’m calling you from the number on the back of your debit card,’” Todd Evans said.Sure enough, the number on the caller ID matched the number on the debit card.As the caller began to walk Todd and Stephanie through a so-called “wire reversal” process, the caller told them that there was a second wire transfer for $18,000 to a Jessica Mack.”We just had this little gut feeling like, ‘I don’t know if this is OK or not,’” Todd Evans said.But, the man’s demeanor and mannerisms were spot on for what you’d expect from a bank employee.”I didn’t get the impression we were being hurried through this because he wants to get it done and hit the road. It all just seemed very normal,” Todd Evans said. Hours later, when $63,000 from the account was missing, Todd and Stephanie knew they’d been scammed.The con artist spoofed Chase Bank’s customer service number.Data from the FBI’s Internet Crime Report shows there were nearly 21,000 spoofing scams reported last year, making it the 10th most common scam.Ohio ranked seventh in the nation, with more than 13,000 people reporting being victims of a variety of fraudulent schemes.West Chester police is currently investigating Todd and Stephanie’s case as well as a handful of others.”We have some that have devastated families,” Lt. Dave Tivin said. “We’ve seen people’s entire retirement accounts get wiped out. We’ve had people victimized for several hundred thousand dollars.” Tivin said tracing phone numbers has become a challenge for police agencies.”When we trace a phone number back, it comes back to an IP address, which comes back to another IP address. It bounces all over the place, which eventually turns up overseas,” Tivin said. His advice, get to know your bank and its protocols.Tivin suggests asking them, “If fraudulent activity is noted on my account, are you going to call me? Is there some sort of code? Are you going to ask me for any of my information?” Red flags include callers who give detailed instructions, ask for personal information or create a false deadline.”They get people on edge, and then the person they’re talking to on the phone is the one that’s going to help them out of trouble, so they let their guard down. It makes them more trusting, and it’s like, ‘OK, this is making more sense now because this person wants to help me,’” Tivin said. Tivin said victims rarely get their money back.It’s not looking like Todd and Stephanie will either.”In their system, it looks as though I initiated the transfer and I completed it, which is true. I did,” Todd Evans said. Unknowingly.It is a hard pill for them to swallow, as the money was from the car crash settlement.”All of it was going to my medical bills,” Stephanie Evans said. While it’s a huge setback in getting Stephanie back on her feet permanently, she’s still able to smile. Almost losing her life in a car crash has Stephanie and Todd looking at life through a different lens.”I’m alive. I’m with my kids,” Stephanie Evans said.”And this isn’t permanent,” Todd Evans said, pointing to his wife’s wheelchair. The Evanses still don’t understand how the crooks got access to the debit card number. They said it’s not one they use to make purchases. They said the fraudulent Walmart purchase was a “point-of-sale purchase,” and they now believe that purchase was part of the scheme.A representative for Chase Bank provided a statement saying, “These types of scams are heartbreaking. We urge all consumers to ignore phone, text or internet requests for money or access to their computer or bank accounts. Legitimate companies won’t make these requests, but scammers will.”The representative also provided the following scam prevention tips: •Protect your personal account information, ATM pins, passwords and one-time passcodes. If someone contacts you and asks for this information, especially if it’s someone claiming to be from your bank, do not share it with them.•If you want to be sure you’re talking to a legitimate representative of the company that contacted you, call the number on their official website.•If you want to be sure you are talking to a legitimate representative of your bank, call the number on the back of your card or visit a branch.•Never click on suspicious links in a text or email or grant anyone remote access to your phone or computer.•Do not respond to phone, text or internet requests for money or access to your computer or bank accounts. Banks will never call, text or email asking for you to send money to yourself or anyone else to prevent fraud.•To learn more about common scams and ways to protect yourself, click here.