Beware Of The Scammers ! :-( | Page 2 | Your stories | Discussion forum

I have real life examples of individuals getting quite agitated when a FI asks them questions about the movement of funds out of an account to another FI. It is taken personally, such as "what right does a bank have asking me why I want to transfer funds out? It is my money and they just want to stop me from a better deal elsewhere."

FIs are caught between a rock and a hard place regarding agitating their own customers asking questions and not doing enough. I do not know why anyone wants to be in front line service at a bank and sometimes be abused.

itsme said
The victim may be at fault but in my opinion the bank was negligent in not spotting the fraud or even caring enough to ensure an old man was not getting conned out of his life savings. And if I was transferring a huge amount of money you better be sure I would want the bank to do more than ask a couple of questions before letting the money go through.  

How could the bank be negligent if they already asked all the proper questions, yet the man still want to do the wire transfer ??
The bank is to take a client's instruction and already act MORE than whats necessary in my mind. "Not care enough" , "old man" "not spotting the fraud" are just excuses for the victim to shift responsibility, all just to try to get the money back that he 100% willingly transfer away in the first place. Oh guess what, he did it to try to earn a higher interest rate away....
Do I feel sorry for him cuz he's old, yes. Should he get reimbursed, totally not.
Same as we don't get rewarded for being vigilant.

HermanH said
TV news just reported a second victim of the same scam. This time, it was an elder lady who lost $250K. She actually asked her bank why the recipient bank was not associated with PC Financial. I did not hear if/what the response was.  

Well she believed a 6.1% GIC rate is real. her greed totally blindfolded her, blaming TD is more like she has not and will not learn from this mistake, especially if she gets reimbursed.

HermanH said
TV news just reported a second victim of the same scam. This time, it was an elder lady who lost $250K. She actually asked her bank why the recipient bank was not associated with PC Financial. I did not hear if/what the response was.

How would the TD bank manager know? It was the victim who was providing TD with the wire transfer instructions including the recipient's BMO account. Those instructions include the recipient's name and address on the receiving BMO account:

How do I send a wire transfer?

To send a wire transfer, you need to visit your local [TD] branch and provide the following information about the recipient's account:

• Account holder name and full address
• Account number
• Branch number and full address
• Institution number
• Swift Code / BIC / IBAN code
• Routing Number (international)

…

According to the CTV News story, TD warned the Airdrie, Alberta woman. She went ahead with the $233,000 wire transfer anyways:

"Whenever a customer is making a large transaction, our branch teams are trained to ask probing questions and warn of potential scams. If a customer still chooses to proceed with the transaction, it would be completed based on their instructions."

AltaRed said
I have real life examples of individuals getting quite agitated when a FI asks them questions about the movement of funds out of an account to another FI. It is taken personally, such as "what right does a bank have asking me why I want to transfer funds out? It is my money and they just want to stop me from a better deal elsewhere."

FIs are caught between a rock and a hard place regarding agitating their own customers asking questions and not doing enough. I do not know why anyone wants to be in front line service at a bank and sometimes be abused.  

On the other hand, people have good reason to be suspicious when someone calls, apparently representing a bank, and starts to ask personal questions.

Just today we received a call from someone purporting to be from one of our banks, wanting to verify a transaction, or something to that effect. "Press 1 to continue", etc.

We are on the ball enough to recognize this as a fraud,
especially as it was a recorded voice, but in my view the banks could do a lot more to discourage people falling for these things. They could begin with not taking advantage of their own elderly customers, talking them into things they never asked for, don't understand, and that clearly aren't good for them. (This happened to my mother, then age 98 and recently widowed, at RBC.) When they act like this, it gives the distinct impression they only care about things they can be held liable for, not customers. I was ultimately able to put a stop to the financial abuse of my mother, but only when I threatened to complain to the Mutual Fund Dealers Association. They do hate bad publicity. Mum only lost $240 in the end, but should have been earning interest, however paltry.

We invariably deceive ourselves. Our brains are wired to believe things which are too good to be true. Very few people never once fall for some kind of confidence trick, and our mental rail guards become weaker with age.

I think that for life changing amounts like this older people should always seek a second opinion from close family before acting.

The "Bank Inspector" scam in which people are told to withdraw cash and then give it to them because a teller or other employee is under suspicion is at least fifty years old. They always say not to tip off the bank so the crooked teller won't be tipped off. I read it in a Reader's Digest issue back then. All these "withdraw money" scams are updates of that.

Even I, wary as I am, was almost hooked last fall by a "grandparent scam" call saying a friend was arrested. They knew my name and the voice was an amazingly perfect copy of a real friend. When they asked me to give $8K for "bail" to a "lawyer" instead of a court office, I asked what the friend's last name was, and they hung up. They tried again a week later, and I offered to decapitate them and toss their head in the toilet if they wished me to give them any cash.

No more calls like that since.

A late friend was almost suckered by the "Large Cheque for a Small Purchase" scam when selling an expensive table on line. Her bank teller immediately spotted it, refused the cheque and directed her to the police. Good job!

CAD: None other than Elon Musk tells that he bought a McLaren a while back. He took it on an expressway, put the pedal to the floor and found himself spinning upside down in the air. Respect the horsepower! Kudos to good old McLaren for great occupant protection! (I keep running into people who ask "What's a McLaren? Look it up. They're beautiful and have won many world championships, including several with Sir Lewis Hamilton.)

WHEN THE BANK CALLS YOU: I have the CSRs at some of my financial institutions record a "reverse password" in my client file. If they call me, I ask them to give ME the password so I can be sure of who they are. That won't protect me from actual crooked bank employees, but in that case I'd expect the bank to own up as they have recordings of their calls.

I don't worry about being paranoid. I worry about being paranoid enough!

Norman1 said

savemoresaveoften said

Last time 1y GIC was at close to 6% was 4th quarter 2023. If you believed news are only reporting a story that is 15 months old, so be it.
Who's actually judging here.

BTW the other victim who lost $750k, his incident happened in Oct 2024. Were there a real 1y rate anywhere close to 6%...

Those are NOT small amount and victim chose to trust a website even tho they smell something may be wrong ?! Would they have pull the trigger if the fraudulent rate was like 4-4.5% ?? Yes I call that greed.
…

The earliest of the three fraudulent domains mentioned in PC Financial's warning is pcf-canada.com that was registered 2024-08-19. So, the earliest victim would have been in August 2024.

The example phony 6.1% GIC brochure and confirmation given are dated September and October 2024.

One-year GIC's were not near 6% then.  

mordko said
We invariably deceive ourselves. Our brains are wired to believe things which are too good to be true. Very few people never once fall for some kind of confidence trick, and our mental rail guards become weaker with age.

I think that for life changing amounts like this older people should always seek a second opinion from close family before acting.  

Close family member opinion would be an excellent idea. Possible inheritance money could be at stake.

There is no evidence the 82 year-old was cognitively impaired, he "decided to search online to find the best interest rate possible". An element of greed seems to be usually involved.

If I'm 82 and I've got $750k I can't afford to lose I'm just dealing with my local big bank branch familiar staff to just keep rolling over my GICs with them, no need for "best interest rate possible", that money will last me.

Loonie said

Just today we received a call from someone purporting to be from one of our banks, wanting to verify a transaction, or something to that effect. "Press 1 to continue", etc.

I got a live call from somone purporting to represent Oaken. She told me of an issue with my account and wanted to authenticate me before proceeding. I did have an issue with Oaken and was pretty certain it was an official Oaken call. She asked me the last 3 digits of my SIN and I gave them. When she then asked me for my b-date, I refused. I told her that SHE had called me and that I had no idea how to authenticate her. I had to call back to Oaken, could not connect to her, and had to deal with another CSR. It was them, but the fact that OAKEN called me and then tried to go through their verification procedure is the problem.

Just because it was okay this time, does not mean it will be so the next time. By allowing this practice, they are potentially confusing other clients. "Well, it was okay when Oaken called me, it must be okay with bank XXX, too." I complained to Oaken and it was likely round-filed. They should never be promoting a bad practice. One of these days, they may get an unsuspecting customer who will be made more vulnerable.

This bank-initiated verification procedure has also been tried by EQ on me.

If the banking industry cannot even prevent themselves from using such a dangerous practice, how can the general public be expected to be as diligent?