GIC Wealth Management Broker Rates | Page 5 | GIC discussions | Discussion forum

Monarch, GICWealth, and GICDirect are all currently offering 1.72 for one year. I just checked in the last hour. I would probably take them over WealthOne if feasible and save my CDIC allotment at WealthOne for another time when it outpaces the others, but have not checked their current rate and am not looking for a one year GIC right now.

Thanks for posting, rodeworthy.
I have dealt with GICWealth and never had a problem. I have no idea who UBS is and would be extremely wary. I suggest you phone GICWealth directly. Talk to Kevin. It's his company, and he is approachable, particularly for new clients who may be uncertain. I have found him trustworthy.
I wonder if you somehow ended up on the page of another advertiser??

Perhaps gicwealth.com was entered by mistake instead of gicwealth.ca.

GIC Wealth Management is actually at https://www.gicwealth.ca.

It looks like someone has set up gicwealth.com to redirect to GIC Direct!

Hi all, I am Kevin from GIC Wealth. If anyone has specific questions for me regarding the business of GICs, I would like to make myself available. I may not monitor this site all day but I promise to get back to you in a timely manner.

Time for an update on the UBS/GICWealth situation.

I want to assure all that I was in fact logged into https://www.gicwealth.ca on Nov. 2 when I provided personal information (name, email address, phone number, amount interested to invest [$50,000 to $100,000] and when [immediately]) on that site to secure an email subscription to GIC rates.

That web page is a secure site as indicated by the lock symbol on the URL line. Despite this security, I received a call on Nov. 3 from a man identifying with UBS [Union Bank of Switzerland - one of the largest banks in the world] who indicated he has learned I was interested in purchasing a GIC in the $50,000 range.

The caller when questioned advised that UBS had a close working relationship with GICWealth. I am paraphrasing here because I did not get all the information the caller was pouring out to me. He was interested in closing a GIC deal - I was interested in finding out who he was and the relationship between UBS and GICWealth. The caller agreed to send an email with the information I requested.

I received that email the evening of Nov. 3. The content of the email is quite sophisticated and an attachment was a duplicate of UBS' web information - except the phone numbers were bogus. The caller's name was provided - a search of that name revealed it is the same as a blogger who specializes in hosting guest postings about financial and consulting businesses. A search of the 647-xxx-xxxx phone number provided did not produce meaningful results.

I will not post the email info and UBS attachment here - if you are interested in seeing it, send me a PM.

It is interesting to note the attachment from UBS included the following warning:

Please be aware that we have noticed a recent increase in the number of fraudulent phishing attempts by third parties. Fraudsters might create fake websites and advertising materials while pretending to be representing UBS, including fictitious advisor names. In order to protect yourself and your information, we encourage you to verify the validity of all information by contacting UBS on this website.

I believe my contact was one of those fraudulent third parties.

I have contacted UBS and been advised they are aware of these fraudulent activities. I am awaiting a call from UBS' security department and I will provide them the content of the email and attachment at that time.

I have been in contact with GIC Wealth's Kevin Rotenberg and provided all information I have to him. GICWealth is a victim of this fraud as much as we are. I will work with them as required to resolve this breach. I note that Kevin has posted in this thread and I welcome him to the forum. I look forward to doing business with him in the future.

Not sure if I will hear from my 'UBS caller' again. I am not interested in talking to him.

Thanks for the informative update, rodeworthy. I guess it's a tribute to the success of Kevin's business that others want to steal from it.

I am curious whether you think the site you were on when you submitted your info and considered it secure was in fact GICWealth's or the fraudster's. In other words, was there a breach at https, or was the problem that you were somehow directed there? I hope that makes sense.

Well done with your diligence and vigilance!

Loonie said
Thanks for the informative update, rodeworthy. I guess it's a tribute to the success of Kevin's business that others want to steal from it.

I am curious whether you think the site you were on when you submitted your info and considered it secure was in fact GICWealth's or the fraudster's. In other words, was there a breach at https, or was the problem that you were somehow directed there? I hope that makes sense.  

Loonie, thank you for the question. It has caused me to try and re-think the process I went through at gicwealth.ca. I tried to duplicate it with a test on the site (sorry Kevin - you can delete the John Smith-testing request for information).

I seem to recall that there were several 'Continue' selections to be made to go to another page before the information was complete. I can't remember if that was related to some other work I was doing or the GICWealth session. If it was during that critical session then I know I did not look to check the status on the URL line and it is possible my connection was diverted to another website. But for sure, I was on the secure GICWealth site when I started so how does this happen? For me it doesn't matter. I was sufficiently skeptical during the phone call I got that it raised a red-flag for me. I guess I need to find out from GICWealth if they ask a question about how much I want to invest and when. If they don't do that, then my connection was compromised. These are troubling times.

Hi All. Thank you again Rodeworthy for this information. Please rest assure we are investigating the situation. We are treating this matter with the utmost importance. Once we are confident that the matter has been resolved I will be back in touch with you. Until then please contact me directly with any specific requests. Regards, Kevin