Hamilton resident loses $25K in Scotiabank employee impersonation scam

A Hamilton man says he’s out $25,000 after a fraudster posed as a Scotiabank employee, even calling him from what appeared to be the bank’s official number.

The scammer told the man she was trying to “stop” fraud on his credit card from going through.

Meanwhile, she actually enabled it.

About eight weeks ago, Dale Patenaude says he noticed he had a few missed calls from Scotiabank. So, when they called back again, he figured he better answer.

“The lady on the other end said they were from the early detection fraud department at Scotiabank and they think there may be some fraudulent activity happening live on my credit card,” says Patenaude.

He says the caller on the line knew his credit card number and other personal details so when she said she was going to text him a verification code to help stop the fraudulent charges, he complied and told her the codes.

“By the way, the number they called me from was the number on the back of my credit card and the text message they sent me with the verification code came from a number that I have received verification codes from Scotiabank previously,” Patenaude says.

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He thought the so-called bank employee was trying to protect him from being scammed. But, he says it turns out she was the scammer.

By the time he hung up and was on the line with Scotiabank’s actual fraud centre, it was too late, his credit card had already been charged in the U.S. for nearly CAD$26,000.

“I’m panicking, they are not helping, they are just saying we will launch an investigation,” Patenaude says.

He says once the fraudulent charges from the U.S were made, Scotiabank’s real anti-fraud detection centre should have flagged it as suspicious since he is never in the states, but instead the bank sent him a letter saying he demonstrated gross negligence for not protecting his private information.

So far this year the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says Canadians have already lost over $11,000,000 to this type of fraud and it’s a very sophisticated scam.

“Sometimes fraudsters even have a bit of your personal information before placing the call to make it believable,” says Jeff Horncastle from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

They can spoof phone numbers, to make it look like a legitimate institution is calling and can search the dark web for leaked banking information.

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The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says the only way to combat this is to be the one to make the outgoing call because once the money is gone it’s hard to get it back.

“Unfortunately recovery is rare,” Horncastle says.

Patenaude says he’s filed a police report and is still waiting for Scotiabank’s final decision on whether he has to foot the bill for the charges that apparently went toward paying off someone else’s student loans.

“It’s really stressing me out, I work really hard for my money and I have a daughter who is going into grade 10 who I am hoping will be going into university and now I am stuck paying off some strangers’ education,” Patenaude says.

His advice… don’t pick up the phone.

“Scotiabank takes all cases of fraud seriously and continues to educate clients to never share passwords, PINs or account access with any individual. Clients are encouraged to always practice safe banking habits while doing their part to help recognize, reject, and report fraud,” Scotiabank said in a statement with CHCH News but did not respond directly to this specific case.

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