Fort Erie man fell victim to bank thieves
Unauthorized withdrawals total thousands of dollars
It’s everyone’s worst nightmare — going to the bank to withdraw money or pay some bills and a substantial amount of money, if not all of it is gone.
That’s exactly what happened to one Fort Erie man.
Lloyd McGuigan was planning to make a bill payment and used his online banking app to conduct the transaction.
“I get a lot e-transfers for the business (Niagara Electric), so I clicked this one that looked perfectly normal for $255,” he said. “When I did that the normal looking page opened that you select your bank.”
McGuigan, who banks with CIBC, selected his bank. He was directed to a web page rather than his banking app, so that gave him pause.
“I stopped and called CIBC. They said it sounded normal, not to worry. I still didn’t trust it so I went no further and figured if it was real I would get a message I still needed to get the money but obviously, it was too late.”
When McGuigan went to pay the Visa bill last Wednesday he noticed a substantial amount of money — in the thousands of dollars — missing from his account.
“I called the bank and informed them and they instantly got my money back, but wouldn’t confirm if my theory was correct or how it was done.”
Here’s what the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada recommends. In the event of fraud:
• Contact your financial institution and any other companies where your account has been compromised;
• Contact Canada’s two credit bureaus, Equifax and TransUnion, and ask them to place a fraud alert on your credit report file to tell lenders to contact you and confirm your identity before they approve any applications for credit;
• File a report with local police;
• Notify the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. To prevent fraud:
• Review your bank account and credit card statements on a regular basis and make sure there are no unauthorized transactions;
• Change your passwords
• Report any unauthorized transactions immediately
• Order and review your credit report. If there are accounts that you don’t recognize, it could mean that someone has applied for a credit card, line of credit, mortgage or other loan under your name.
Even with the reimbursement, the incident has left the electrician with a headache.
McGuigan has had to close all his accounts and open new ones, call credit agencies to report the incident and redo the paperwork for automatic withdrawals.
“And boy, has this been a pain in the butt,” he said.
“I called the bank and informed them and they instantly got my money back.” LLOYD MCGUIGAN