Two individuals are down nearly a combined $95,000 in the past month after a bank scam.
The first report a woman told police she lost $5000 following a call with someone claiming to be with the RBC Fraud Department, while a male encountered the same scenario and has now lost nearly $90,000.
Res. Cst. Gary O’Brien of the Nanaimo RCMP said the fraudster claimed their bank accounts were compromised.
“In both situations the victims thought they were speaking with bank officials, and therefore agreed to turn over personal banking information to the fraudster. This essentially gave the scammer access to their accounts and their money.”
Both situations had the caller ID on their phones say it was RBC calling leading them to not be suspicious, but the fraudsters were using ‘call-spoofing’ to make the phone calls look legit.
The scammer said to both individuals to prevent fraudsters from accessing their accounts, they needed their banking information to transfer their money from one account to another.
O’Brien said after waiting for the information from the two, they explained how to send either an E-transfer to themselves or to a payee.
“Once fraudsters have your trust, the scam begins to fall into place and it’s not long before your money is flowing into their dirty hands.”
RCMP is reminding people financial institutions will never request banking information from you over the phone, ask for credit or debit card information, ask for passwords to your account, and to never assume the caller ID is legitimate.
If called by someone claiming to be a financial institution, tell them you will call back and dial the number on the back of your debit or credit card, not the one they provided.
