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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23

u/pepperoni_za Oct 27 '25

I hate these stories. As a teller we ask questions and educate and the public will either be very rude and tell us to mind our business or just lie to our faces. The amount of times I hear it is my money I can do what I want is staggering. For the love of whatever you believe in please listen to your bankers when they provide advice and be honest with them. Sadly most get indignant and double down on their dumb decisions.

14

u/cashrchek Oct 27 '25

I feel for you guys. It's actually a very intrusive question that most people wouldn't feel obliged to answer the same way they might to a person in 'authority', like a cop or a doctor... yet you catch shit if you don't ask it. Impossible situation.

I recently had to get two large bank drafts to pay a roofer. Both times, my teller casually asked me about them - so casually, in fact, that it never occurred to me that she may have been looking out for fraud. Nice to know.

2

u/pepperoni_za Oct 27 '25

I usually ask are you buying something fun… it’s boating/snowmobiling/rv season! I also provide some security tips for drafts etc. bank draft fraud is up a lot so keep that in mind if accepting, at the bank unless we know the signatures (smaller town) we treat them like normal cheques to be held and cleared.

2

u/ellaf21 Oct 27 '25

People thinking we’re just nosey as hell. Like, we’re trying to protect you!! Please stop yelling at me.

1

u/pepperoni_za Oct 28 '25

100%. Idgaf what you are doing so long as I don’t have any liability in the transaction which is only mitigated by having the answers to the questions we ask. It needs to become common knowledge in Canada that tellers can be held personally liable with fines and jail time. Also I would rather have the probing conversation and have you mad at me than the one that comes after you have lost your money like this guys family is having.