FERGUSON, Mo. (First Alert 4) - A Ferguson woman said an attempted scam has led to banking issues that are now causing her bills to fall further behind as she waits to find out when she will receive her money.

Defonda Evans was looking to get work done on her roof last month when she applied online for a home equity type loan.

 I applied online for one of those home equity type loans. And it turned out to be a fraud,  Evans said.

Evans said soon after, there was an unusual deposit of more than $2,900 in her account. She said a scammer called her and wanted to run a check through her account before giving her the loan.

 The scammer actually called me, and he wanted to run a check through my account and then give me the loan, and that alerted me,  Evans said.

The FBI calls this type of scheme a money mule scam, in which criminals try to get people to move money through bank accounts, prepaid debit cards and other types of payments to make it harder for law enforcement to trace.

Evans said she and the payee she has on her account for Social Security called U.S. Bank to alert them.

 We reached out to the bank. The bank said that they would keep that check from going through. We didn't worry anymore about it,  Evans said.

Evans said the incident was reported to the bank's fraud department and automatic payments continued to go through. But her Social Security payment in was never deposited into the account on Oct. 2, which she said was due to the investigation and concerns over another scam deposit. Social Security is her only source of income.

 They will not release my check. It is now the 19th,  Evans said.

Evans said bills are adding up for insurance, utilities and medications, including those related to a recent wrist injury.

 Friends and family have chipped in for my car note, car insurance,  Evans said.

Evans said she calls the fraud department almost daily and has stopped at a bank branch, but there has been no resolution.

 They continue to say it's under investigation. No further information is given to neither myself nor the payee,  Evans said.

A U.S. Bank spokesperson w
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