Mounties issue warning on bank fraud scam

Nanaimo

2024-08-02 11:05 PDT

File # 2024-18039

 In the past month, two individuals reported losing thousands of dollars in a bank fraud scam. The victims, a man in his 40’s and a woman in her 50’s lost in total, almost $95,000.

In one of the two reported incidents, the woman told police she lost $5000 after receiving a call from an individual who claimed to be working with the RBC Fraud Department. At that time, she wasn’t too suspicious as the caller ID on her phone said it was from RBC. The male victim told police the exact same story but unfortunately for him, he lost almost $90,000.

Both the man and woman were told quite convincingly, that their respective bank accounts had been compromised. The scammer advised both that in order to prevent fraudsters from accessing their funds they needed to transfer money from one account to another. After receiving personal banking information from the two, the fraudster patiently explained to them how to send either an E-transfer to themselves or to a Payee.

In both situations the victims thought they were speaking with bank officials, and therefore agreed to turn over personal banking information to the fraudster. This essentially gave the scammer access to their accounts and their money, said R/Cst Gary O’Brien of the Nanaimo RCMP.

In both cases the fraudster used call-spoofing to make the victims think they the phone call was legit. Once fraudsters have your trust, the scam begins to fall into place and it’s not long before your money is flowing into their dirty hands, said O’Brien.

Please be aware that financial institutions will never: 

• request personal banking information from you over the phone;
• ask for information on your debit or credit card;
• ask for access to your computer or passwords to your banking account;
• Also, never assume the phone number on your call display is legitimate

Lastly, if you receive a call from someone claiming to work for your financial institution, tell them you will call them back. When you call back, call the number on the back of your debit or credit card and not the one that they provided.

To learn more about frauds visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre  

Released by:

Email: gary.obrien@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Website: nanaimo.rcmp-grc.gc.ca

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