‘We had a bunch of missed calls’

Dilyn Gilbert-Leduc took over ownership of Mor In Pools and Spas with his wife in January. He told CTV News that from business to personal, all of his accounts are with Scotiabank, and on March 31 they lost everything.

“We had a bunch of missed calls from the Scotiabank customer service line that we confirmed on our debit card with the phone number,” he said.

“At this point, all a bunch of money was already gone from our business accounts (and) personal accounts.”

Later in the day, the couple decided to answer one of the calls.

‘We had nothing more to lose’

Gilbert-Leduc said the couple was initially cautious, aware of the prevalence of scams and fraudulent activity.

“We initially refused to give any information to the person on the phone, just saying that we would go to our branch and deal with our branch advisor and in person, just knowing there’s lots of scams and fraudulent activity out there,” he said.

Gilbert-Leduc said after several return calls from the individual, who confirmed their name and other IDs – and with the couple even calling back using the same number, they relented and spoke with the individual.

“After a few return calls of them confirming their name, their business ID, and confirming the phone number and even us calling back from the same number, we were able to kind of just at this point, we had nothing more to lose,” he said.

Fraudsters can manipulate phone numbers, expert warns

Jeff Horncastle from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre cautioned that phone numbers appearing on call display cannot be trusted.

“You have to be aware that the fraudsters have the ability to make any phone numbers show up on your call display,” said Horncastle.

“If they’re not aware of that, then you’re automatically at risk.”

Horncastle explained to CTV News that telephone fraud relies on a specific tactic that leaves consumers vulnerable.

“The biggest message that we try to get out there was, you know, telephone fraud specifically is the fact that the fraudsters can manipulate phone numbers (through) caller ID spoofing,” he said.

“There’s no way to confirm, you know, 100 per cent who we were speaking with.”

‘Zero support’

Gilbert-Leduc said there have been no offers for mortgage deferrals or credit increases and zero support from Scotiabank to continue running the business or feeding his family at home.

“They’ve been giving us 50-50 shots of getting our money back, even stating they know where the money is. They’ve been in contact with the bank that has the money they were able to trace everything to. Now they just have been saying they don’t even know if they can get it back or do anything to support us,” he said.

Bank cites privacy, warns of spoofing

CTV News reached out to Scotiabank for comment. However, a bank spokesperson, Graham Slaughter, said that the financial institution cannot comment on any individual client matters for “privacy reasons.”

The bank did provide a statement which reads in part:

“The bank will never ask clients to disclose their PIN, password or one-time code on a call they didn’t initiate… Scotiabank’s customer service line has not been compromised. Fraudsters may spoof phone numbers to make a call appear as though it is coming from the bank.”

Couple hopes to hold bank accountable

The couple says they are sharing their story in hopes of holding the bank accountable.