When Carmen Evans looked at her phone, the caller ID displayed a business she recognized: Wells Fargo.

The man on the line introduced himself as “Michael” from the bank’s fraud department. He said there were questionable transactions on her account.

The caller appeared to know who she was and referenced purchases at Sam’s Club and Walmart that she recognized. Then he mentioned a $3,000 transaction she said she had not made.

“I did not have to give him my name,” Carmen said. “The only thing he asked me at that point was, ‘You’re going to be getting some text with the code. Just make sure you repeat the code to me.’”

Carmen said she shared the codes, believing she was speaking with Wells Fargo. When she later tried to access her banking accounts, she could not get in.

Carmen believed she was helping protect her money.

She and her husband, William, went to a bank branch seeking help. William said an employee told them there was activity occurring in their accounts while they were there.

“So I said, ‘Well, you see that it’s not us, stop it,’” William said.

The couple said they later learned money had been moved between their accounts and was transferred through Cash App using Carmen’s linked Wells Fargo debit card. Carmen said she did not make those transfers.

The couple says they lost more than $7,500 across their bank accounts.

Carmen typically used Cash App as her ‘petty cash ’-money for her grandchildren or other personal expenses — not transfers involving thousands of dollars.

The loss included about $3,000 in savings, along with income the couple needed to pay their bills. Carmen said her Social Security payment and paychecks from her part-time job were among the funds taken.

“They took stuff that we needed, and we had to turn around and take loans to cover bills,” Carmen said.

With rent and a car payment due, the couple said they also had to ask their children for help.

“It was hard to go to our children just to say, ‘Well, this happened. And now we don’t have any money,’” William said.

Even after their next checks arrived, William said, they were still trying to catch up. Covering current expenses while making up for the missing money left them struggling to recover.

Carmen said she disputed the transactions but has not been able to recover the money. She has since deleted Cash App, and the couple said they were working to move their banking elsewhere.

Here are steps you can take to protect yourself:

Don’t trust the name on your screen. If someone calls claiming to be your bank, hang up and call the number on the back of your card. Don’t use a callback number the caller provides.

Never share a verification code with an unexpected caller. The ABA says banks will not call and ask for your one-time login code. Keep passwords and PINs private, too.

Don’t move money to “protect” it. A caller telling you to transfer money to yourself or another account through a payment app is a red flag.

Turn on account alerts. Monitor transactions, use strong, unique passwords and enable multifactor authentication.

Find more warning signs through the American Bankers Association’s

Banks Never Ask That campaign.

If you already shared information or lost money:

Contact your bank and payment app immediately. Use official contact information, explain what happened and ask how to secure your accounts and dispute transactions you did not make.

Change compromised passwords. Update any other accounts where you used the same password.

Save the evidence. Keep texts, call records, screenshots and transaction receipts, and write down a timeline.

Report the scam. Notify the Federal Trade Commission and file a police report if you lost money.

“The most important part is to educate others so they don’t have to suffer like we suffer,” Carmen said.