2023-07-29 04:00:00
In ten years, from 2011 to 2021, the number of frauds in the country has increased by 93% according to Statistics Canada and the losses of Canadians amount to $16 billion in five years. The newspaper presents three testimonials.
While unemployed in December 2022, Fouad Allam suffered a first $5,000 fraud by Global Transfer in his BMO account.
• Read also: He works 7 days a week to pay back stolen money from his BMO account
• Read also: He was waiting for a call from TD customer service, he was a fraudster on the phone: $18,000 lost
“The impact on my life has been terrible, you can’t imagine!” says the one who is now an administrative officer in the health network.
He filed a complaint with the bank and the police, he also had his computer analyzed by McAfee, learning then that he had been hacked and that his personal information had been accessible on the dark web.
On May 5, another fraudulent transfer caused him to lose $1,200.
Luckily, he found a job a few weeks later, but with the high interest running up and this debt now mounting too fast, his financial stress is immense. Fouad Allam has family responsibilities in Lebanon and his salary of $23 an hour does not allow him to reduce his debt.
PHOTO MARTIN ALARIE
How to make ends meet?
“I lived on almost nothing,” he says of the past few months.
The police closed his file, for lack of sufficient leads to continue the investigation. BMO, for its part, flatly refuses to reimburse it.
The final reason cited by BMO’s Office of Executive Complaint Resolution? There was an attempt to recover the funds from the other banking institution where the transfer was made, but the police report arrived too late.
BMO acknowledges in a written communication that this delay is not the fault of its customer, but of the police. The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal had informed in writing when the police report was requested that it would be submitted in two or three months, well beyond the time limit provided for by law.
This did not convince BMO to compensate Fouad Allam, who has been a client of their institution since arriving in Canada 16 years ago.
At BMO, we remind you that “account protection is a partnership between customers and their bank and it is the customer’s responsibility to protect their account information at all times”.
“The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) takes complaints of fraud seriously and we spare no effort to tackle them, both in repression and prevention,” we were told by email.
Fraud complaints to the SPVM
2019: 8072
2022: 9641
2023 (first three months): 2637
Do you have any information to share with us regarding this story?
Write to us at or call us directly at 1 800-63SCOOP.
1690620982
#Unemployed #defrauded #BMO #refuses #reimbursement
