Florida man says $6.5M vanished from his business account in 3 days — all it took was 1 phone call. He’s still out $4M

“We were totally in shock by the situation, we had never issued any volume of wires like that,” Rosario told WFTV 9.

Since then, law enforcement has helped him recover some of the money, but more than $4 million is still missing.

According to Rosario’s attorney, he’s not the only victim. Victor Velarde, who is helping Rosario sue the bank, said that this same scheme was done on another bank customer just two months earlier. In that case, Velarde said, a lawsuit was filed claiming more than $17 million had disappeared from a trust.

According to Velarde, scammers called the bank claiming to be an account holder who got a new phone and requested a one-time passcode for the account. He said scammers were able to do this using publicly available personal information.

“A lot of that money was basically going to my grandkids and our future. I mean, eventually… I’m 68 years old, I got to retire eventually,” Rosario told WFTV 9.

A bank spokesperson told WBDO, the radio partner to WFTV 9, that it has filed a motion for partial dismissal and intends to defend against the case.

Protecting yourself from online fraud

Rosario’s case highlights the devastating financial and emotional impact fraud can have. Unfortunately, cases of fraud are on the rise. In 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received more than 3 million fraud reports, up from the 2.6 million reported in 2024. Total financial losses associated with fraud hit $15.9 billion.

Protecting yourself online is becoming harder in part due to AI-driven scams and the accessibility of personal information. But it’s still possible to take steps to make it harder for scammers to take advantage of you.

One of the easiest things you can do is to set up two-factor authentication, not just on your bank account, but on every account you use. Two-factor authentication is a system that requires you to verify any login to your account using a method other than a password.

You might receive a code via text message or you might have an authenticator app that shows you a code. Using an authenticator app is more secure because it prevents scammers from intercepting text messages.

It’s important to secure all your accounts, even ones that might not feel as important. Even if you don’t have a bank account connected to your social media accounts, for example, a hacker gaining access to it might still be able to use the data they find to reach your other accounts.

For the same reason, it’s extremely important to use a unique password for every single account you use.

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were 1,803 data compromises in the first half of 2026. Data compromises can expose personal data like people’s names, addresses, phone numbers and sometimes even information like passwords and bank information.

That means that if you’re using the same credentials for your bank as another site, for example, a scammer could use your username and password to gain access to your money.

Password managers are tools that can help you come up with completely unique passwords for each account you have. They make it easy to randomly generate a password for an account and securely store it.

Finally, personal data removal services scour the internet looking for any information about you that’s accessible online. These services then send opt-out requests to data brokers. If a scammer calls your bank claiming to be you, they might be far more convincing if they have a detailed record of your life.

Protecting your assets requires you to be vigilant

Of course, none of these tools are impenetrable and they still require you to be vigilant. Two-factor authentication will not protect you if you are effectively tricked by a scammer into providing an access code.

That’s why it’s also important to make sure that you’re informed of what’s happening with your money.