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Yet Another Wire-Transfer Fraud Case ! :-(
February 20, 2024
4:01 pm
Dean
Valhalla Mountains, British Columbia
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.
It seems like these fraud cases are happening almost every day now . . .

A good warning for us All !

And remember ... “Hindsight Is 20/20”.

    Dean

sf-cool " Live Long, Healthy ... And Prosper! " sf-cool

February 20, 2024
7:30 pm
Norman1
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Such frauds have always been happening. Just more victims now brave enough to tell their story to the media.

The bank or credit union cannot do much. Doesn't matter if the transaction is out of the ordinary. If I want to wire $100,000 of my savings to a woman in Nigeria one day, I can tell the branch staff it's my money and none of their nosy business how I met her. 🙁

February 20, 2024
8:36 pm
AltaRed
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Yet all these articles have to include the blame game on the FI. Damned if they question/challenge, and damned if they don't. A really tough place for FIs to be.

February 20, 2024
8:53 pm
mordko
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The “company” which defrauded him has done it before.

Surprised RBC allowed them to continue operate the account.

https://www.biv.com/news/economy-law-politics/whos-getting-sued-january-9-2023-8270087

February 21, 2024
1:47 am
cgouimet
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Dean said
.
It seems like these fraud cases are happening almost every day now . . .

A good warning for us All !

And remember ... “Hindsight Is 20/20”.

    Dean

  

What I found interesting in this case was a "BMO senior investment portfolio manager" asking this guy to buy older CSB's with $ transfers to a RBC bank account in Ontario, in the name of a company called B21 Trade (Canada). No mention of how many winks took place but it sure smells fishy to me.

sf-winksf-winksf-wink

CGO
February 21, 2024
6:13 am
savemoresaveoften
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No sympathy from me if someone is dumb enough to trust a complete stranger with their life long retirement savings.
And even worse cuz it’s “extra bit of yield” that attracted him.
Scammer / fraudsters always succeed when the target is greedy….

February 21, 2024
9:30 am
Dean
Valhalla Mountains, British Columbia
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Dean said
.
. . .

And remember ... “Hindsight Is 20/20”.

    Dean

Well worth repeating

We can all read sad cases like the one linked in Post #1 above, and then mutter to ourselves; "I'd Never let that happen to me !" ... until it does.

'Caveat Emptor'

    Dean

sf-cool " Live Long, Healthy ... And Prosper! " sf-cool

February 21, 2024
8:56 pm
Norman1
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One didn't need hindsight to spot the scam reported. Just like one didn't need hindsight to spot that GIC Trust scam discussed earlier.

I wouldn't have fallen for that "older Canada Savings Bond issue" malarkey. Federal government discontinued the Canada Savings Bond program years ago. All outstanding CSB's matured in 2021 and have stopped earning any interest since.

The provincial securities regulators publish a registry of registered investment professionals. Registry includes name, type of registration, and employer contact info. A call to the senior investment counsellor's listed office at BMO to confirm would have alerted everyone to the impersonation.

Wiring funds for a BMO investment purchase to an RBC bank account in the name of B21 Trade (Canada). Really? Why wouldn't an investment counsellor with BMO be using a BMO bank account in the name of something like BMO Nesbitt Burns or BMO Private Investment Counsel?

Just because I'm not 100% at fault for being scammed and losing money doesn't mean I'm 0% responsible.

February 21, 2024
9:11 pm
mordko
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Also, when an unfamiliar “senior account manager” calls you out of the blue and offers a surprisingly good deal, there is good reason to be cautious.

But seniors do make money mistakes. Could be an early sign of dementia. I have also read that gullibility in youngsters and seniors is by design. Its a natural process.

February 22, 2024
4:52 am
savemoresaveoften
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Norman1 said

Just because I'm not 100% at fault for being scammed and losing money doesn't mean I'm 0% responsible.  

To my eyes, the victim is 100% at fault, 100% responsible. Can’t always just claim ‘I am dumb’ and expect others to clean up the ‘mess’ of one’s wrong doing.
The scam described is not even sophisticated, its kindergarten level at best.

February 22, 2024
7:51 am
Alexandre
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mordko said
... when an unfamiliar “senior account manager” calls you out of the blue ...

Do people on this forum often get cold calls from "investment portfolio managers?"

The story sounds like inside job: some employee at FI collects info from calls to FI about investments, passes that info to bad actors.

February 22, 2024
8:48 am
mordko
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Alexandre said

mordko said
... when an unfamiliar “senior account manager” calls you out of the blue ...

Do people on this forum often get cold calls from "investment portfolio managers?"

The story sounds like inside job: some employee at FI collects info from calls to FI about investments, passes that info to bad actors.  

Possible but for all we know there may have been something on social media or a local/industry publication may have announced that this guy was about to retire.

I am still curious how RBC opened and maintained a business account for this thief. Normally they ask a lot of questions, verify business activities, check out owners in face to face meetings, etc.

February 22, 2024
9:56 am
Lobetho15
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mordko said
Also, when an unfamiliar “senior account manager” calls you out of the blue and offers a surprisingly good deal, there is good reason to be cautious.

But seniors do make money mistakes. Could be an early sign of dementia. I have also read that gullibility in youngsters and seniors is by design. Its a natural process.  

Yeah, I read about this elderly woman who scammers called. Her family locked her in the house without a phone. Still, she managed to escape to send money to someone, and they could only find her with the help of the police.

February 22, 2024
11:55 am
smayer97
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savemoresaveoften said

To my eyes, the victim is 100% at fault, 100% responsible. Can’t always just claim ‘I am dumb’ and expect others to clean up the ‘mess’ of one’s wrong doing.
The scam described is not even sophisticated, its kindergarten level at best.  

Really???? A victim is a victim... they did not invite the scam. The scam would not have ever happened if not for the scammer.

Could the victim have protected themself? Maybe. BUT that does NOT make the victim responsible. Scams happen because they take advantage of people's weakness, even greed. Can a victim be foolish, even wrong in some way? Absolutely! BUT the culprit is STILL the perpetrator.

February 22, 2024
12:44 pm
Jimmy
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Alexandre said

mordko said
... when an unfamiliar “senior account manager” calls you out of the blue ...

Do people on this forum often get cold calls from "investment portfolio managers?"

The story sounds like inside job: some employee at FI collects info from calls to FI about investments, passes that info to bad actors.  

It happened to me once, maybe 4 or 5 years ago now. Out of the blue I received a call from someone claiming to be with an 'investment firm' in the U.K. of all places. They wanted to share investment advice with me. He wanted me to go to their website and follow his 'instructions. ' I ended the call by saying I was not near a computer.

February 22, 2024
2:23 pm
HermanH
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savemoresaveoften said To my eyes, the victim is 100% at fault, 100% responsible. Can’t always just claim ‘I am dumb’ and expect others to clean up the ‘mess’ of one’s wrong doing.
The scam described is not even sophisticated, its kindergarten level at best.  

I suspect that we have all, at one time or another, fallen victim to a scam. I fell for a small one and lost a few hundred dollars, 30 years ago.

However, anyone who gives money to someone pretending to be homeless and panhandling on the road is likely a scam victim. The ones I see are fakirs, who arrive by bus or walk from their homes out to the nearest corner to perpetrate their fraud. I even have some of their house addresses. So, to all those who give, you are probably a victim.

February 22, 2024
2:51 pm
cgouimet
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HermanH said
I suspect that we have all, at one time or another, fallen victim to a scam. I fell for a small one and lost a few hundred dollars, 30 years ago.

However, anyone who gives money to someone pretending to be homeless and panhandling on the road is likely a scam victim. The ones I see are fakirs, who arrive by bus or walk from their homes out to the nearest corner to perpetrate their fraud. I even have some of their house addresses. So, to all those who give, you are probably a victim.  

Yes but we're not talking small change here ... A senior real estate exec enticed by apparently a BMO exec to transfer $ to some company's RBC account to invest in fictional CSB's. As a senior real estate exec he had never done wire transfers but he wired $600k.

Don't know about you but I'm not going to transfer anywhere near that much to anyone with as little info as this guy did.

Too much greed leading to too much gullibility (sp) here ...

CGO
February 22, 2024
3:14 pm
savemoresaveoften
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smayer97 said

Really???? A victim is a victim... they did not invite the scam. The scam would not have ever happened if not for the scammer.

Could the victim have protected themself? Maybe. BUT that does NOT make the victim responsible. Scams happen because they take advantage of people's weakness, even greed. Can a victim be foolish, even wrong in some way? Absolutely! BUT the culprit is STILL the perpetrator.  

I was a victim a long time ago and gave a guy $10 who claimed to be a local artist and starving, and then saw him went to buy a pack of cigarette. Is it my fault that I am now short $10 ? Totally. Should I be 100% responsible ? Totally cuz its not like he put a gun to my head that I "have" to pay.

February 22, 2024
5:09 pm
AltaRed
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Most of us have handed out a few dollars of that nature from time to time knowing full well the funds may not be put to good use, i.e. we never know. They know we don't have time (or motivation) to accompany them to a diner or convenience store to actually buy the product for them.

February 23, 2024
12:40 am
RetirEd
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I never accept or follow instructions from anyone or anything that contacts ME with financial advice. Except, of course, if I'm bored and want to have some fun wasting their time. I often use the delay to research their scam or the entities they're impersonating or imitating.

In a recent case, a scammer called me three times, twice after I flat hung up on him. Then I told him he'd called from three different spoofed numbers, none of them with a phone exchange prefix one could have in Ottawa. The light finally dawned on him.

Yes, I'm retired, have no family and sometimes don't have anything better to do after business hours.

RetirEd

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