Cornwallis seniors twice bitten by scammers
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A Cornwallis couple is frustrated after finding more than $4,000 of fraudulent activity on their credit card — marking the second time the seniors have been scammed during the last year.
Gerald Allen, 70, said in repeated calls with the credit card company, the Canadian Tire Bank, he has received mixed communications.
“This is all a nightmare,” Allen told the Sun on Monday.
Janice Allen and her husband, Gerald, stand in front of their home in the RM of Cornwallis last summer. After being scammed last summer, the couple recently found more than $4,000 of fraudulent activity on their credit card. (Abiola Odutola/The Brandon Sun files)
Allen noticed something wasn’t right when his wife, Janice, 68, tried to use her Triangle Mastercard at Walmart and it was denied. Janice has a supplementary card linked to Allen’s account.
When Allen checked the card’s transaction history, there were more than 100 transactions he didn’t recognize spanning a period from early January to Jan. 29, with all of them being linked to PayPal.
The transactions total $4,318.64.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Allen said he immediately called the number on the back of his credit card to speak with someone from the Canadian Tire Bank.
“I said … ‘What’s going on here?’” Allen said.
He was told both his and Janice’s cards had been frozen due to fraudulent activity and that it could take more than three months for the transactions to be reversed.
Allen said the bank eventually unfroze his card and cancelled Janice’s supplementary card.
He was initially told that he would have to pay off the charges and then wait to be reimbursed.
During another call with an employee of the Canadian Tire Bank, Allen said he was told that he wouldn’t have to pay the interest. One of the employees filed a report on Allen’s behalf to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
He received a phone call weeks later from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre confirming that a report had been filed, but hasn’t heard anything since.
He said the stress of having these outstanding transactions hanging over his head has been “unreal.”
Allen said when he phoned PayPal, an employee told him that the company might look into the fraudulent activity. He and Janice also submitted a letter online to PayPal’s customer support, but didn’t receive a response.
“We’re stuck with $4,318.64 and (nobody) seems to care.”
After the Sun contacted PayPal on Tuesday regarding the fraud, the company reached out to Allen to let him know that the money would be returned and gave him $100 in PayPal credit.
For the Allens, the ordeal was all too familiar.
Last summer, more than $4,600 went missing from the couple’s Amazon gift card. He said they had taken their Bitcoin and put the money into a gift card.
Gerald said it took months — and repeated phone calls with the online retail giant — before the money was returned.
The Bank of Canadian Tire did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by press time.
PayPal said scam attempts can take on many forms and are not specific to PayPal. It urged customers to be vigilant when making online purchases and keep a close eye on account activity.
PayPal recommended several measures for customers to enhance security, including changing account passwords and contacting PayPal and the financial intuition if one’s PayPal account is used without permission, along with regularly updating apps and software, enabling multi-factor authentication and choosing unique passwords.
» sanderson@brandonsun.com