‘It looked like my bank’: Bethesda bakery owner scammed out of $24K
Funds critical to Praline Bakery & Bistro payroll stolen; community rallies through GoFundMe campaign
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Jacqueline KalilMay 1, 2026 5:48 p.m.
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Susan Limb, co-owner of Praline Bakery & Bistro in Bethesda, says she was used to dismissing scam phone calls, but the call that purportedly came from her bank on April 16 felt different.
So she responded – and ultimately ended up losing $24,000 of the bakery’s funds to a sophisticated phone “spoofing” scam.
“For a small business like this, $24,000 is huge,” Limb told Bethesda Today in a Friday phone interview. “We’re already dealing with rising costs. This just made everything harder.”
The loss of the money used for payroll has created a financial hardship – and resulted in an outpouring of public support for the bakery, which has operated at 4611 Sangamore Road for 20 years. A GoFundMe campaign launched by Limb’s daughter to help offset the loss had raised more than $21,800 as of Friday afternoon.
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Limb said she initially dismissed the call allegedly from her bank as just another scam attempt. But this time felt different. The caller ID matched her bank’s official number, and the person on the line spoke confidently, guiding her step by step through the bank’s website to “verify” his legitimacy.
“He told me to double-check on the bank’s website, and the caller ID matched,” Limb said. “He knew exactly where to tell me to click. That’s what got me.”
The caller claimed there were fraudulent transactions in progress, including multiple unauthorized transfers. He warned that immediate action was needed to “stop the fraud” and instructed Limb to provide security codes being sent to her phone.
Panicked about the possibility of losing money needed to make payroll, she complied.
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“I was thinking, I can’t have this money come out of my account,” she said. “He said, ‘I need the codes to stop the fraud.’. Those were his exact words.”
The scammer also advised Limb not to log into her account while the “investigation” was underway and to ignore any automated alerts from the bank, describing them as delayed or redundant. Over the next several days, he followed up, reinforcing the illusion that the situation was being handled.
It wasn’t until days later, when she checked her account, that she realized the money—$24,000—was gone.
When she called her bank directly using the same number that had appeared on her phone, she was told the truth: no one from the bank had contacted her.
“That’s when I realized it was a spoofing scam,” she said. “I didn’t realize they could actually make it look like the real number.”
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Unlike more obvious scam calls, the caller used professional language and demonstrated detailed knowledge of banking systems—factors that Limb said lowered her guard.
“He was just so smooth,” she said. “I’ve had scammers call before, but this was completely different.”
According to Limb, the situation worsened when Truist Bank declined to reimburse the lost funds in a phone call, citing “negligence” because Limb had shared security codes. Limb said the bank told her reimbursement would only be possible if the funds could be recovered from the receiving account—an unlikely scenario if the money had already been moved or withdrawn.
Truist Bank Corporate Reputation Officer Alex Armentano told Bethesda Today in an email that the bank takes “all potential fraud seriously,” but would not comment specifically on Limb’s incident.
“That’s what really hit me,” she said. “I thought the bank would help. When they said no, that’s when I started to panic.”
Limb has since filed reports with the Montgomery County police and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, though she was told cases involving fraud less than $1 million are less likely to be pursued unless they are part of a larger pattern. Limb has also filed a claim through her cyber insurance policy, though that process is ongoing.
As of late Friday afternoon, county police and the FBI had not responded Bethesda Today’s request for comment about Limb’s case.
In the meantime, the response from the community has been strong, with customers, neighbors and professionals offering assistance, from financial advice to investigative support.
“We’ve been in business for 20 years,” she said. “The outreach has been incredible. ”
Limb now hopes her experience will serve as a cautionary tale.
“I knew about scams. I thought I was careful,” she said. “But they’re getting smarter. And if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”
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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine