Case
Ms. T. was selling a couch online on Kijiji and was contacted
by a potential buyer who lived in another province. The buyer, who was
in fact a fraudster, claimed to be the owner of a transport company
and asked her to send the couch through his company. Ms. T. agreed to
send it to him once she had received a cheque for the price of the
couch and the delivery fee. Ms. T. went to a Bank branch to deposit
the cheque, then carried out an Interac e-Transfer in the amount of
$970 to the bogus company. Shortly thereafter, an employee from the
Bank's security department contacted her to confirm some of the
details of the transfer; the transfer was finally authorized, while
the cheque was returned to National Bank as a "fraudulent
cheque."
Investigation
The Client Complaint Appeal Office determined that Ms. T. took
the time to share her concerns about the buyer's identity with the
security department employee. However, the employee neglected to
inform Ms. T. that the payee of the account to whom she wanted to send
the funds did not have the same name as the alleged buyer. Finally,
the transfer was identified as potentially fraudulent by Interac, but
the Bank employee nonetheless approved it after his conversation with
Ms. T. The Office recommended that the Bank refund the amount
corresponding to the transfer. However, she concluded that Ms. T. was
responsible for the cheque she deposited.