Fraudsters posing as Amazon employees scam Gatineau, Que. victim for $12,000
CTV
A Gatineau, Que. resident has fallen victim to a phone scam that resulted in the loss of $12,000, but TD Bank has declined to reimburse the funds.
A Gatineau, Que. resident has fallen victim to a phone scam that resulted in the loss of $12,000, but TD Bank has declined to reimburse the funds.
Suzanne St-Denis says that the scam happened in late July, with a phone call from someone claiming to be from Amazon, alleging that her credit card had been used for a fraudulent purchase.
"They asked if I had made a purchase in the amount of $200 or just over $200 and it was from Winnipeg and I said no. He said, 'Have you been to Winnipeg?' and I said no. So he says, 'You're disputing it?' and I said yes and he says, 'I have to transfer you to my supervisor,'" she said. "The supervisor came on the line and I did questions with him and they told me that before I go ahead, I have to agree and I said yes then he would have to transfer me to their loss section."
St-Denis was transferred multiple times to a supposed security section, followed by a legal section where she had concerns, but adds the scammers provided a web page that appeared to be connected to the 'Courts of Ontario', and even instructed her to Google the name of the person they were speaking with, which further legitimized her concerns.
"I thought to myself, 'How much more legit can it be?'" said St-Denis. "So then they asked me to withdraw money and deposit it in a verification machine, and it was to verify that the money was good and I questioned that it's the money from the bank, why verify? But they said it had to be verified for one reason or another."
St-Denis withdrew a total of $12,000 from two branches of her financial institution, TD Bank.
"The first withdrawal was $7,000 and the second withdrawal was $5,000," she says. "The woman [bank teller] at one branch asked me what the money was for and I said it was for myself. It was the only question. At the other bank, for the $7,000, they didn't ask me at all."
