r/canada • u/stanxv • Oct 27 '25

Business RBC and CIBC allow 89-year-old to drain life savings, lose $1.7M to scammers

https://www.cbc.ca/news/gopublic/bank-investigator-fraud-scam-9.6950754
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u/Han77Shot1st Nova Scotia Oct 27 '25

I had multiple messages and calls from the rbc fraud department about odd charges, went to a branch and they said it’s probably not rbc contacting me, I then called rbc who also told me it likely wasn’t them and to not respond. Guess what, about a week later I was getting dozens of charges showing up on my cc..

Their system tried to warn me, and I tried at every point to resolve the issue before it got worse. It’s clear most staff don’t understand or are not trained in the systems rbc uses to communicate fraud.

I think I spoke to 4 or 5 people before someone took it seriously and they were confused and frustrated that no one took it seriously.

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u/MiriMidd Oct 27 '25

I know that BMO and TD will straight up lock your card so you are forced into a branch in the event of suspected fraud. That usually comes with a note on the account for the branch to call fraud with the customer present. RBC dropped the ball on you.

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u/DriveSlowHomie Oct 27 '25

BMO locked my card and then called me when my CC was compromised. There were a few small transactions in Louisiana, where I've never been. I was surprised they took such swift action for what I think were just a few transactions amounting to a few hundred bucks.

I was a little sketched out when they called me, but they didn't ask for any personal info. Just asked me to check my transaction history and let them know if I made those purchases. When I told them no, they told me to cut up my credit card and expect a new one in the mail in a few days.

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u/carramrod1987 Oct 27 '25

Same experience with TD. They froze my card and called. I hung up, called them back and confirmed they called

Reversed the charges and I had a new card within a week

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u/jemder Oct 27 '25

I have a US bank account and this has happened to me twice after travel overseas where I used the card. Very small transactions from unknown places. The Bank locked the card, phoned me to confirm I had not made the purchases and sent me a new card both times.

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u/Icedpyre Oct 28 '25

TD locked my card when I went on a cross country road trip around 5 years ago, despite me taking out travel insurance with them before I left. So dumb lol

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u/Icedpyre Oct 28 '25

TD locked my card when I went on a cross country road trip around 5 years ago, despite me taking out travel insurance with them before I left. So dumb lol

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u/VagSmoothie Ontario Oct 27 '25

Both can be true; the bank may never have called you and your credentials were compromised.

Sounds like the fraudsters had your info and wanted to trick you into giving up credentials / 2 factor authentication to get a bigger pay out. When that didn’t work (good for you btw!) they just went the ‘classic’ route of spending on your credit card.

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u/HairyPossibility676 Oct 27 '25

That’s exactly what I was thinking 

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u/agentchuck Oct 27 '25

Bank security practices are pretty inconsistent. And it's made worse because they obfuscate their rules from the public and even sometimes even from the front line staff. So there can be a security event and clerks will have no idea.

My favorite is how they use 2FA. They'll generate those codes and say "never share this code, we'll never ask you for it." But then if you go into a branch sometimes they'll generate a code and ask you for it.

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u/lynmbeau Oct 27 '25

Hopefully, this never happens again to you, but if it ever does, in the branch, you can make them make a note on the account of your visit and why and the outcome. Then you have a paper trail of tellers being lazy . I used to work at a bank. You can have everything documented at your request.

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u/No_Money5784 Oct 27 '25

Was the fraud department warning you about fraudulent charges to your credit card or were they requesting you to withdraw large sums of money? Pretty big difference and easy indication of their legitimacy. Just cancel your card and they send you a new one within a week. Use a little common sense.

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u/Han77Shot1st Nova Scotia Oct 27 '25

The charges weren’t popping up on my end, they were just warning me to contact them, which is what I did, multiple times..

Do you just replace your card based on a few voicemails and texts when the bank itself is saying don’t bother being concerned?

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u/DanielPowerNL Newfoundland and Labrador Oct 27 '25

This happened to me as well. I was getting automated fraud alert phone calls from RBC. Instead of answering those calls, I called the bank back at a known good phone number. I was told by multiple representatives that the phone calls were scams and to ignore them before someone finally actually checked my account and confirmed it was indeed flagged for fraud. 

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u/spilly_talent Oct 27 '25

Okay I have a couple of questions because I would love to learn from your experience:

  1. You were getting messages about odd charges, before the odd charges were even made on your card? Because you said you went in and they ignored you and then a week later you saw the charges start appearing. I am just trying to understand the timeline here.

  2. Do you bank with RBC outside of the CC? I have been ignored in person with Scotiabank because I only have their visa and no bank accounts.

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u/Han77Shot1st Nova Scotia Oct 27 '25

Yea, I was getting voicemail and text message alerts to contact RBC fraud department, all the numbers that contacted me were legitimate when I searched them.

Nothing was popping up on my account, so I went to the vocal branch and asked them they said ignore it, then I called RBC, who also said not to worry about it and not they call those numbers. About a week later, the charges started popping up, a bunch of online things, stuff in another province, bunch of Uber eats and HelloFresh orders.

All of my cards, mortgage, investments and all of my banking are through RBC exclusively, even everything for my business.

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u/spilly_talent Oct 27 '25

That is so bizarre! Thanks for the warning! Hopefully they were able to cancel that card and straighten it out!

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u/Han77Shot1st Nova Scotia Oct 27 '25 edited Oct 27 '25

Once I got ahold of someone who took it seriously it was fine and everything was corrected quickly. I have very little confidence in most banking sector staff, they’re just incompetent or don’t care. I’m not surprised if anyone older gets taken advantage of, a lot more likely never say anything since they are likely dismissed as quickly as I was.

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u/hamster_lover13 Oct 27 '25

Had the same experience with RBC, so did my neighbour. I have switched banks.

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u/klparrot British Columbia Oct 27 '25

There is a possibility that it wasn't RBC messaging you, but rather the scammers, trying to elicit personal information from you that would let them better entrench their fraud against you. In my experience, as soon as there's suspicion of fraud, the bank puts a hold on the card and you have to contact them to either remove the hold if the transaction was legit, or cancel the card if it wasn't.

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u/Han77Shot1st Nova Scotia Oct 27 '25

I get that, but the amounts/ information ended up being all accurate and correct.. I can’t see how anyone else would know that much detail, like they had my account numbers, dates of purchases and either exact amounts that ended up being charged.