Woman demands accountability after father scammed

A Winnipeg woman is demanding more corporate accountability 3½ months after her father’s account was emptied by a telephone scam artist posing as an RCMP officer.

Gary Schneider received a call in late April from someone claiming to be a Mountie investigating gift-card fraud at Shoppers Drug Mart and Dollarama. The caller offered Schneider $500 for his help on the case and he agreed.

The scammer sent a link to Schneider that enabled him to see the open electronic bank account page on the 69-year-old man’s laptop computer, noting there was $1,800 in available funds.

Schneider was directed to withdraw the money and make Apple gift-card purchases totalling the entire $1,800 and then send the authorization codes over the phone.

“I am so hurt and feel taken advantage of,” Schneider told the Free Press.

Realizing something was off, he called his daughter and they made a police report and called the bank and Apple in a desperate attempt to recover the funds.

Daughter Tricia Schneider said neither the bank nor Apple have been helpful.

“When this whole thing unfolded with my dad, it was like he had no rights,” she said. “He didn’t have access to his bank account; we had to help him with bills and rent to get back on his feet. He was going to be homeless.”

After multiple lengthy phone calls with Apple’s fraud department, the company was able to determine there was $500 in unspent funds available on the gift cards and is sending the money to Schneider, but it has been weeks and nothing has materialized.

His bank, Assiniboine Credit Union, wouldn’t allow Schneider to open a new account unless he got his phone wiped clean, but he couldn’t find a business that performed the service. The bank also denied any fraud insurance on Schneider’s account because he was the one who made the transactions.

“The whole process in itself was just such a nightmare,” Tricia Schneider said.

Assiniboine Credit Union vice-president of marketing Dean Beleyowski declined to comment on Schneider’s claim but said the credit union works to review every case of fraud and potential fraud.

“We constantly encourage our members to be careful,” Beleyowski said in an email. “The type of frauds are diverse and always changing. But the core best practice for all of us is never share your banking details.”

Apple spokesperson Cortney Hughes declined to comment on Schneider’s claim.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesperson Const. Claude Chancy confirmed the financial crimes unit is investigating, but declined to offer any further information on how police deal with such scams.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has processed 24,411 fraud reports so far this year and estimates $342 million has been lost since Jan. 1.

“These companies all have these sort of fraud things in place, but they’re not aligned with… other companies,” Schneider’s daughter said, calling for better co-ordination and co-operation to protect victims.

Keith Elliott, a fraud examiner and the CEO of Reed Research Investigations based in Ontario, said while many retailers have protocols for suspicious purchases that may be linked to frauds or scams, training can be inadequate.

Elliott said companies have to do their due diligence in ensuring the claims are legitimate.

“So there’s going to be steps and balances,” he said. “You can’t take it at face value, because that could be a scam unto itself, right?”

Fraudsters will target people like Schneider — senior and low-income — and once the money has been transferred, there’s little recourse for victims, Elliott said.

“There’s very little to no enforcement or prosecution on any of this, simply just because the police don’t have the time, resources or structure to deal with this,” he said.

The Winnipeg Police Service 2024 crime report indicated that fraud made up 73 per cent of reported cybercrimes.

WPS received 4,469 reports of fraud last year, down from 4,869 reports in 2023.

The clearance rate last year was six per cent.

Tricia Schneider now has control over her father’s bank account and took away his credit card. She looks after his civil-service pension and transfers money into a day-to-day account he can access.

The ordeal has put him further into debt.

“It’s not ideal, because it’s a lot for him and it’s a lot for me. He wants control of his own money, but I don’t want him to be put into this situation again so I’m trying to protect him,” she said.

“I guess my hope is that someone can learn from our mistakes.”

Her father said he hopes something can be done to prevent anyone else from falling prey to such criminals.

“This scam turned my world upside down,” he said.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca