Phone Scam

[Guest]

but...... how can you email that much money out of a bank acct ??????? i really don't understand?????

[grassfarmer]

Yikes, that's a scary story Helmsdale. Good discussions to be having bringing this stuff to light so people can better protect themselves.

[jazz]

but...... how can you email that much money out of a bank acct ??????? i really don't understand?????

Obviously a bunch of smaller daily withdrawals over time. $10k a day is the max from my business account. Maybe they requested higher limits. But a bank would advise against that. Any bank I know that saw $10k a day coming out for 20 business days would be all over that.

I one time used a credit card 3 times in a row at an airport pay phone and rbc locked all my accounts down.

[helmsdale]

but...... how can you email that much money out of a bank acct ??????? i really don't understand?????

Only thing that comes to mind is the idea that they had their "limits" set sky high... With increased convenience generally comes corresponding risk.

Who knows...

Hackers and thiefs are always at the forefront. If they were able to port their number, it means they had government issued picture ID. They likely had SIN's, date of births, etc just like they had on me, which means they can walk into a bank in Toronto and say they recently moved there. Who is the bank to argue with someone that has all the sensitive personal details about you, as well as government issued photo ID, when you demand to withdraw your funds? It would be slightly more difficult if you were to claim to them that you "forgot" your PIN number, but there is likely a process to go through that will allow you to reset your PIN. And guess what, It'll likely depend on that "sensitive personal information" that only YOU are supposed to know.

Photo ID isn't worth shit these days. Unless, the individual asking to see your ID, has a current photo of YOU, that is actually YOU to compare it to, all that photo ID means is that the *person* presenting the ID matches the picture of what that worthless piece of plastic says YOU look like.

[sumdumguy]

People working in banks have all your information - maybe not your pin just saying. Its no longer your next door neighbour from small town Saskatchewan. It concerns me to give all this info to unknowns that are there today but gone tomorrow morning.

[sumdumguy]

Also there are 10 day holds before the money can be withdrawn?

[shtferbrains]

The hackers transferred their phone carrier from Sasktel to Telus before proceeding to drain the bank account. The family seem more upset with the phone company than the bank.

Here is the Facebook post from the Johnson family. You can find "Johnson Livestock" if you're on FB and read the accompanying comments for yourself. One interesting comment is that the bank doesn't have fraud protection on business accounts, only on personal ones. Not sure if that's true but i'll be making enquiries at my banking institutions.

"The cows are loving this week but it’s been a bit chaotic for the rest of us. This post is a vulnerable one to share but we also feel the importance of getting this information out there in a timely matter because there are still criminals working hard affecting people within our province as we speak.

Last week Anne noticed that her phone wasn’t working but we didn’t think much about it throughout the day assuming it was just an inconvenient glitch with technology. Sasktel informed us that her number had been ported out to another carrier (Telus) and when we insisted that it was not us who initiated that, they spent the day working to get her number and service back. In the meantime she also realized that her email address no longer worked. Cell service was restored and we assumed that all was fine until a call from the bank Monday morning. There had been a series of transfers from our farm account until every last dollar was drained, in the hundreds of thousands.

We aren’t naming the bank involved as their fraud department has been working overtime and we are very satisfied currently with the urgency this is being handled with. We also don’t want them to be bombarded with calls that will take time away from a very time sensitive investigation.

The worst part about this is there were multiple scenarios over the last week exactly like ours through the province. In order for someone to steal your phone number (and essentially your identity) they need minimal information. Sasktel informed me that the reason for this is that they don’t want to make it difficult for people who wish to switch carriers. This is not okay when it compromises your security. It just takes a simple phone call to Sasktel to have them change your account so that you must go sign in person in order to transfer to another carrier. We are urging anyone who has a phone with Sasktel to do this, and if you have another wireless provider, check what security measures they have in place.

We know there are others in a similar situation to us right now and we hope that this will initiate public knowledge of the necessity of going above and beyond with security measures. For us, our use of technology will be drastically changing going forward."

The bank has come good on Andrew's major loss in this situation.

Has to be some great relief to them.

All I can think is how easy it is to change a forgotten password if you have the email access to receive the new one.

Just had a conversation with some others who have also had problems getting 10K+ cash from your bank when your standing at the teller and the money is in your account. ?????

[blackpowder]

Just got off the phone with Telus.
They are aware of this.
But you have to call in and request port blocking. After the legislation allowing consumers to keep their number when switching.

Get er done people!!

[beaverdam]

Heard this afternoon that BMO will replace the funds stolen, from these ranchers.