An elderly North Texas woman says she thought she was helping law enforcement, but instead, she was tricked by a man pretending to be a bank employee and a woman posing as an FBI agent.
She doesn't want to share her name, but she wants North Texans to know what happened.
It cost her family their entire life savings.
She's sharing her story in hopes of protecting other families from the same heartbreak.
"He was so convincing, and he kept me on the phone for hours," she said.
The Garland resident says earlier this month, she got a call from a man posing as a Chase Bank employee.
"He called and he said someone was trying to remove $6,000 from my account, a wire transfer, and he was going to block it," she said.
But she says the way he told her it would be handled, she now realizes, was a scam.
"I want you to go to the bank; we're going to work with the Federal Reserve," she said. "We're going to put money in your account and you're going to take it out, and we're going to look for red flags."
At first, she withdrew $9,500.
"I was getting notices from Chase with those code numbers that you get, and I would read it back to him," she said.
After that, she says he told her to go back and take out another $15,500.
"In my purse, my phone is on, he's listening to everything... don't talk to anybody at the bank, don't talk to anybody," she said.
She says she was told to put the cash -- which was her family's entire life savings -- in a box and give it to an FBI agent waiting in a nearby parking lot.
"So she pulls up and I ask her, 'Are you from the FBI? And he's on the phone and he goes, 'Yes, that's her, give her the money,'" she said. "I think it's over, and he goes, 'You know what, they want you to go back again."
She says she realized it was a scam while standing in line.
"He was trying to get the last of my savings... and for some reason, I did have my phone open to my account, and I saw that my savings account had $2.98 left in it," she said. "It was very disturbing, and I came home and realized what had happened, and I was devastated."
She says at her age, this is a loss she'll never recover from.
But she's thankful police were able to track down 22-year-old Jessica Bahu of Frisco using her license plate.
"Took our money and went to Florida and was on a yacht for two weeks," she said. "If that doesn't make you mad, I don't know what will."
Bahu was arrested last week for exploitation of the elderly, a third-degree felony. She was booked into the Garland Detention Center on a $100,000 bond before later bonding out.
Detectives are now working with the FBI as the investigation continues.
"I would say to never ever take any information off the phone or anywhere else," she said.
She's learned to verify callers directly and that legitimate agencies will never ask for cash, gift cards, or wire transfers.
"You have to be extremely careful of the phone calls!" she said.
She says if she can help just one person, sharing her story is worth it.