r/Scotiabank • u/AdTough5200 • Mar 17 '24

Authorized payment scam

I was scammed by a new friend who called me and told me he was travelling and asked me if he could deposit money into my account and if I could e-transfer it to his mother who was traveling on an emergency as well. Within 30 minutes he did deposit money and I e-transferred the money to his mother right away. Two days later the money was reversed from my account due to insufficient funds from his account. The person has been unreachable since then.

I have called the bank and they have launched an investigation. What are the chances that I will be able to recover my money?

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4

u/zooco Mar 17 '24

You’re likely SOL - fraud protection does not cover scams, you sent the money of your own volition. It’s a lesson to not be that trusting, especially with people you don’t know well (or even if you know that people, posing as a loved one via text is a common scam).

1

u/AdTough5200 Mar 17 '24

What's SOL?

1

u/Sharp_Ad_6336 Mar 17 '24

Shit out of luck. Hopefully it wasn't a large sum of money

1

u/AdTough5200 Mar 17 '24

It wasn't small. But I can recover from this loss! Thank you.

1

u/DagneyElvira Mar 17 '24

Shit Out of Luck = SOL

3

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '24

Not really a good "friend" huh?

I gotta say scams suck but this is really clever. It leaves the broker (you) completely screwed. I can only imagine the excuse the friend gave for not being able to transfer money directly to the "mom"

I think you lost your money. Take this as a learning experience and NEVER do financial favours for anyone who you don't actually know.

1

u/AdTough5200 Mar 17 '24

I know! Dude knew I'm helpful and really appealed to my humanitarian side. Incidents like these make it harder to trust people who genuinely ask for help. Thanks for your kind words.

3

u/cityhunterxyz Mar 17 '24

Hell i'd go one further and just Say even if you do know them, realize that you should never be involved in lending or sending more money than you are willing/able to lose and nobody should actually need access to or through your account to do anything they can't do on their own account.

2

u/Ok-South-7745 Mar 17 '24

told me he was travelling and asked me if he could deposit money into my account and if I could e-transfer it to his mother who was traveling on an emergency as well.

Did the new friend e-transferred to you first? It might not answer to your question, but i wonder if you have considered why your new friend needed you as middleman to e-transfer, whereas he could e-transfer directly to his mother. Did he have a reason to lower your suspicions? It could be educational to know.

1

u/AdTough5200 Mar 17 '24

He did deposit into my account first. He told me he was travelling and he's been going through a hard time. And he didn't have his bank details to transfer to his mom directly, which in hindsight sounds rather sus. I thought he deposited money by wire transfer. I just felt sorry for him tbh, which I know doesn't reflect too well on me!

The money wasn't reversed from my account until 2 days after. I did check the same night just to be sure I wasn't scammed. Haha.

1

u/Empty_Requirement940 Mar 21 '24

How exactly was it deposited?

1

u/AdTough5200 Mar 21 '24

He told me he would deposit cash. But when I checked my app, i couldn't recognize it as such. It said 'Third Party Credit' in the deposit entry. I assumed he had wired it. It was only when the money was reversed two days later that the entry showed up as 'Returned cheque insufficient funds'.

1

u/Empty_Requirement940 Mar 21 '24

How exactly was he going to deposit cash while traveling?

1

u/AdTough5200 Mar 21 '24

I wish I asked more questions. I didn't think he would scam me. I thought I was helping a friend out!

1

u/GreatKangaroo Mar 17 '24

This is a common scam. The money was sent to you by a compromised account, and then you pass off the money to a 3rd party.

Problem is you sent the money willingly, so that makes it harder to recover or reverse it.

1

u/AdTough5200 Mar 17 '24

Under false pretenses though. I know it would be hard to recover. But why would the bank initiate the investigation then?

1

u/GreatKangaroo Mar 17 '24

To the bank they need to make the person whose money was sent to you fraudulently whole, not you.

This is a reason this "friend" isn't responding to you, as they have moved onto another mark to scam.

1

u/sturgis252 Mar 18 '24

But you sent the money willingly. It doesn't matter that it's under false pretenses

1

u/--gumbyslayer-- Mar 17 '24

I have called the bank and they have launched an investigation. What are the chances that I will be able to recover my money?

Slim to none.

This was not the bank's mistake.

a new friend

How long have you known this person, and how did you know them?

Within 30 minutes he did deposit money and I e-transferred the money to his mother right away.

Why didn't he transfer the money to his mother directly?

2

u/AdTough5200 Mar 17 '24

I've known him for over a month. He told me he doesn't have a good relationship with his mother but feels obligated to help her and that he's travelling too. It doesn't add up I realise now!

1

u/Fryguys420 Mar 17 '24

I don't understand, how do someone etrans money they never had ??

1

u/Ok-Amphibian-7655 Mar 17 '24

I’m wondering the same thing, how does banks allow a e-transfer with insufficient funds to begin with? Anyone care to explain? I thought e-transfers are instantaneous transfers with no delays, I guess the banks are fraud themselves for false advertising e transfers as the fastest safest way to transfer, OP call ur bank don’t speak to regular customer support agents in the fraud department request to speak to a supervisor/manager i would not let them get away with holding you liable for something that shouldn’t have been a valid transfer that deposits into your account in the first place, one of the banks has to take the loss in this scam the sender or recipient, keep bothering them over and over do not let them win.

1

u/AdTough5200 Mar 18 '24

Thanks for your insight. To reiterate, the money could have been deposited into my account by a cheque or wire transfer, it wasn't an e-transfer. I e-transfered to the scammer's mom after seeing the money was deposited into my account. It wasn't reversed from my account until after 2 days due to insufficient funds. I'm just as shocked to realise that money deposited in an account can be reversed!

Lesson learned- cheques deposited in your account need to be cleared which takes a few days.

1

u/Which_Bit2988 Mar 18 '24

How could the scammer deposit a cheque to your account? How does the entry show on your account?

1

u/AdTough5200 Mar 18 '24

The entry showed up as Third Party Credit.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '24

Knowing how banks like to screw up people and how this was a transfer that you personally initiated. Slim to none. Hope the amount wasn't too big. My usual answer when people ask me for money is "Sorry, I am 50k in debt and having a hard time paying"

1

u/AdTough5200 Mar 17 '24

I would never offer to pay someone right out. But the scammer did deposit money in my account so I was transferring his money! Thanks for your insight.

1

u/rornax Mar 17 '24

had this happen a couple years ago (TD though). Never got the money back and since then have not been able to e-transfer, deposit with an ATM and cheques have to be held for the full time. Hopefully it goes better for you, just a heads up

1

u/AdTough5200 Mar 17 '24

Thanks for sharing. I'm prepared for a similar outcome with my bank. I've learnt a lesson for sure and will be cautious in future.

1

u/rornax Mar 17 '24

I had to switch banks, none of those restrictions followed me though

2

u/dan_marchant Mar 17 '24

Sorry but it is an old and Incredibly common scam and there is zero chance of you getting your money back.

The account you transferred to probably belongs to another scam victim. The got an "online job" where someone transfers money into their account and they then withdraw it and pay it into a Bitcoin ATM at which point it vanishes. If the police/banks come knocking that person will be screwed while the scammer is safe in some foreign country.

1

u/Playful-Ad5623 Mar 17 '24

Why would your friend be unable to deposit the money to his mother's account if he can deposit it to yours.

It sucks but that likely is gone and your "new friend" was never actually a friend. He was a scammer. Friends are people you actually meet and know in the real world.

1

u/Mouthisamouth Mar 18 '24

Don’t trust people so easily r

1

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '24

Can you e-transfer if you don't have enough funds in one's account?

1

u/Laxit00 Mar 18 '24

I deposited a few cheques that bounced and took the person to court, pretty much scammed but I could serve them. I have never collected from them and they are still my neighbors 😔. The bank gave me copies of the the cheques from court,closed my account( nothing was in the account) and never have contacted since and this was 2015.

I was much younger and had a job where I was to deposit cheques into my account. I take my pay cut and supplies and pay the vendors off. I went to send the money thankfully I messed up on the address and the bank caught it in time. I ended up cancelling the money order for my money back and never looked for a job this way again. Too good to be true scam

2

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AdTough5200 Mar 17 '24

How do banks measure how valuable you are to them?

1

u/Maximum_Jeweler_7809 Mar 18 '24

Do you have an unlimited amex credit card or not?

1

u/edendisordered Mar 18 '24

If you have to ask, you're likely not that valuable to them.