RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — The director of a nonprofit in Riviera Beach is breathing a sigh of relief after nearly $11,000 was stolen from her organization's bank account, leaving her under stress and out of options.
Margaret Brice came to a "Let's Hear It" community meetup in Boynton Beach to ask WPTV for help. Chief investigator Jamie Ostroff got right to work, searching for solutions.
WATCH BELOW: Nonprofit gets nearly $11K in stolen funds returned after WPTV investigation
Brice came to us after noticing three large, unrecognized transfers from her nonprofit's bank account into a different account with an out-of-state credit union. None of it made sense to her, especially when her bank told her it wasn't fraud.
When Margaret Brice talks about her work at her Devotion Personal Development Group thrift boutique in Riviera Beach, she lights up. Twinkling sequins and vibrant colors adorn the racks, a reflection of the cheerful environment she and husband Roderick Lester work hard to create.
"Everyone who comes into the store really loves it," Brice said.
Devotion's mission is to help people with disabilities and other barriers to employment find work.
"We assist them with resume building. We assist them with mock interviews. We go out into the community, we apply for jobs for them, we take them on the interview, and a lot of times they do get the position," Brice said.
They even employ a few of those clients in the boutique, which opened in June.
"This is our little baby. We are very, very proud of it, and it's proving to be a place where people in the community can come and feel comfortable," Brice said.
It's why the couple said they dug into their own pockets to cover a hit to the business that totaled $10,950.
Brice brought Devotion's bank statements to a Let's Hear It event two weeks after noticing three withdrawals from the account that she didn't authorize: $3,800, $3,950 and $3,200.
All of the transactions occurred on Oct. 7 from the same location: Tinker Federal Credit Union in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
"Never heard of Tinker Federal," Brice said.
Brice said she immediately called her bank, Chase, to report it.
"We're going to escalate it. This should be simple. You're going to get your money back. Don't worry," she said that a bank representative told her. "The following day, I called, and they said that the case was denied.”
Brice then filed a police report and called Tinker Federal Credit Union, where the conversation was very different.
"Yes, ma'am, there is a flag on that account as fraud," she said a representative from the credit union told her. "The money is there. All Chase needs to do is fill out a form, and they know what that form would be, have Chase contact them him, and he could release the money back to my account."
Despite what Tinker Federal Credit Union told her, Chase continued to give her the same explanation: "It was not fraud. The transaction was done from a known device, which was mine," she was told.
WPTV reached out to our contacts at Chase Bank to see if we could get to the bottom of this.
"After further review," a company spokeswoman told WPTV in a statement a few weeks later, "we were able to successfully return the funds to Ms. Brice."
"It was definitely a learning experience!" Lester said.
While Chase couldn't confirm exactly how the nonprofit's account was compromised, WPTV consulted multiple cybersecurity experts who pointed to a plethora of possibilities.
Former CIA officer Erin Whitmore warns of the dangers of public WiFi.
"You log into your bank — credential — your bank account, and somebody is sitting on that internet— that open internet, unsecured connection, and they steal your username and password," said Whitmore, who now serves as managing director for CYPFER, a cybersecurity incident response firm.
TrustNet's Trevor Horwitz explained the dangers of "key logging" software.
"Malware is installed onto a device and essentially records all of the keystrokes that you're performing," Horwitz said.
And as identity verification expert Erick Soto of AuthID cautions, AI has made it easier than ever to fall for one of the oldest tricks in the book: phishing.
"Create a real-looking - you know, - website or email; no longer have typos, whereas before you used to spot them and you can spot typos. Now you have these types of tools that can proofread it. So it makes it look very credible," Soto said.
To protect yourself, Chase and the experts we spoke with recommend steps like checking your devices for malware, keeping your operating system updated, using anti-malware software, and enabling two-factor authentication to log into personal accounts.
Also, never respond to phone, text or online requests for access to your devices or account information. If you want to confirm whether any unsolicited contact is actually from your bank, call the number on the back of your card.
As for Brice and Lester, they say they're now taking those extra steps to protect themselves and their nonprofit.
"Now we are utilizing every alert there is," Brice said.
"It's a relief," Lester said.
"Huge relief," Brice said. "And I really credited a lot of it to WPTV.”
Tinker Federal Credit Union did not respond to messages from WPTV.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
