Winnipeg man loses more than $600K in alleged wire-transfer fraud
CBC
Peter Squire never imagined what it would be like to lose his retirement savings of more than $600,000 to a fraudster.
But now that it's happened, the Winnipeg retiree is dealing with the shock and wants to warn other people about what happened.
"You're devastated.… Your whole life ahead of you is turned upside down, because that's what you're relying on in your retirement to do the things you were planning," Squire, 68, told CBC News.
The Manitoba Securities Commission confirms it is investigating and calls this a case of "brand hijacking," which is described as "a sophisticated criminal pretending to be a well-known financial organization or bank."
Squire said the trouble began with an unexpected phone call he got at work on Halloween day in 2022, as he was preparing to retire from a 31-year career as an executive in the real estate sector.
He had been looking around for the best investments to make with his savings, or as he calls it, his "retirement nest egg." He made inquiries with several banks and credit unions and searched online for the best rates.
The Oct. 31 phone call was from a man who identified himself as a senior investment portfolio manager with a major Canadian bank, BMO.
After looking up the caller's name and finding it did match a senior investment counsellor with BMO, Squire decided to do business with him.
"He offered an older Canada Savings Bond issue at a little bit of a higher rate," Squire said.
"This is how these people exploit seniors or other Canadians and dupe them out of their money.
"It was all designed to remove me of my money and say it was a legitimate, older savings bond that I could purchase through him and that he can facilitate that."
Squire made two wire transfers in November 2022 from his Access Credit Union account in Winnipeg, thinking the money would go into an RBC bank account in Ontario, in the name of a company called B21 Trade (Canada) Ltd.
The first transfer was $175,000 and the second one a few days later was $473,290.08, for a total of more than $648,000.
Squire, who said he'd never done a wire transfer before, thinks the money went from his Access Credit Union account in Winnipeg to the RBC business account in Toronto, and then to a Citibank account in Hong Kong.
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WARNING: This story contains disturbing details about gruesome deaths and sexual abuse.