When Rick Hall discovered that most of his life savings had been drained from his bank account, he suspected that he had been pirate.
The first track came when his password did not work. Then, once he recovered access, he saw that on February 17 a total of $ 28,710 had been transferred to an unknown credit card account.
“There were $ 249 on the bank account,” Hall said. “It’s quite shocking when you have to pay bills.”
Halifax, NS, 66, said the robbery amounted to more than his partner does in a year working at McDonald’s.
Cybersecurity expert Claudiu Popa said it is a classic identity fraud case.
“We call these account acquisitions,” he said.
Popa, who is the Datarisk Canada CEO and the founder of Knowledgeflow, a cyber security foundation, said accounts acquisitions have a double purpose.
“One is to steal the funds found in the bank account,” he said. “And the second is to steal more information because the information is valuable. Information is also a currency.”
Approximately one month after Hall reported the lost money, he said that a researcher at his Simplii Financial Bank determined that he had been a victim of fraud. On April 2, the total amount was reimbursed. During the entire investigation period in March, he could not withdraw his pension payments because the account was frozen.
“We have resolved this matter for our client and we recognize the duration of the process in this case caused an additional inconvenience, which we will review while we work to support our clients in situations like this,” said Benjamin Wylie, SIMPLII spokesman, in a statement.
Huijun Long received a notification in the Virgin Plus application that his service with the company had been canceled. It turns out that his phone number had been “transferred by mistake” to a Bell Mobility account. Angela Macivor has the story.
According to the data of the Canadian Anti-Francud Center, the identity fraud had the largest number of reports among all types of fraud in 2024 with 9,487 victims throughout the country. Among those cases, 106 were in New Scotland.
The anti-fraud center said it does not track how much money people lose in cases of identity fraud because it is generally too complicated.
“In many cases, the financial institution or the affected company can absorb losses,” said Jeff Horncastle, customer and communications dissemination officer.
“It’s hard to know exactly who is absorbing losses, who is responsible.”
Hall said he informed his case to the Halifax Regional Police, but the file was closed after his money was returned.
He said that what frustrates him more is that he has not received specific details from the bank on how someone won control of his bank account. CBC’s to Simplii questions about how Hall account was also accessed also without an answer.
“They are trying to say that it was my computer,” Hall said. “I have all the antivirus, I have malware, all that there, and my computer is clean.”
During an occupied online shopping season, cybercriminals may be looking to obtain their information. Angela Macivor of CBC spoke with experts about how to keep himself, his information and his safe money this holiday season.
But Popa said that these forms of online protection are not enough.
“No one throws a new internet virus without really trying that he can avoid antivirus,” he said. “Most likely, if everything that depends is antivirus, it has no guarantee that your computer is clean.”
Popa said there is a form of malware called Keylogger that is installed in secret when someone clicks on a malicious email link or opens an infected file.
“A Keylogger or a data stole is something that observes its keyboard and, and as soon as you write your password and your username, it sends it by email to its owner, the cybercounts, and can use it to try to enter the account,” he said.
According to Popa, another vulnerability is simply having a weak password or using it for multiple accounts.
Hall insists that his password was original and did not contain personal data. But now you are afraid to continue with the online bank.
“It simply happens so frequently and nobody can keep upwards. And the people who are doing it have a better technology to steal than to prevent,” he said.
In Simplii’s statement, Wylie said the bank actively works to keep customers informed about safe banking practices and the types of fraud that should be attentive.
“Protecting customers against fraud is a priority for our team that includes involving and educating our clients about the role they play to recognize scams and protect against them: maintain safe personal or bank information, and be distrustful of electronic emails, text messages or calls that request personal information,” he said.
Horncastle with the Anti -Fraud Center says that “there is no magical form” to make sure the bank information is safe.
“The best thing we can do is remain proactive, verify your credit report, monitor your bank accounts or your credit card extracts,” he said.
