Customers voice concerns with BMO security measures after scammers gain access to their accounts

Several customers with the Bank of Montreal are raising red flags about what they call inadequate security measures within the bank's online banking infrastructure after scammers gained access to their accounts

Several customers with the Bank of Montreal are raising red flags about what they call inadequate security measures within the bank's online banking infrastructure.

CTV News has heard directly from four individuals who say they, or one of their family members, have had money stripped from their accounts and sent overseas through global money transfers.

For Ottawa resident Katya Feder, a brief conversation over the phone in April 2023 with a fraudster impersonating a BMO employee cost her $14,500.

"I was completely shocked. Flabbergasted. I mean, I was in disbelief really," she told CTV News.

Feder was told there was a suspicious transaction to purchase cryptocurrency from her account and the bank wanted to confirm whether it was a legitimate.

"I said OK, great! They are keeping on top of things at the bank. Wonderful. Then she said 'we're just going to verify your identity, we're just going to send you a verification code.'"

Feder repeated the code to the woman on the phone and just like that, her account was compromised.