My mother has had several money transfers from her line of credit go out over the past month, ranging from $500-$2000 each, totaling $8500 that she didn't send. She told me she called the bank and told me they told her they couldn't do anything. Is there anything that can be done? Is there anyone else she can contact or anything at all? She showed me some recovery firm she was going to try, but it seemed sketchy to me so I told her not to go that route.
There are elements missing from this story. If the transfers were fraudulent then the bank could have frozen the account and started an investigation. If they refuse then something else is going on. Is that something that your mother actually allowed these transfers or shared her login information?
She didn't tell me exactly all of what the bank said when she talked to them, as I wasn't present when she did so. She told me they were sent from her line of credit. She doesn't know any of the people the money was sent to. I suspect she doesn't have MFA setup currently, though I have advised her to do so, or let me do it for her. She doesn't check her bank account online as much as she should, honestly, but I don't know what all can be done. Would be it best to go to the bank in person and try and talk to someone there about things? She's being stubborn saying she already talked to the bank for over an hour and is annoyed at me for telling her to basically do it again. No police report was filed since I've not had to deal with anything like this before and didn't know what my options even were. I'm trying to get some insight.
Yes you need to go back to the bank. If her account has been compromised, then it needs to be closed down or at least frozen. If the money transfers were considered to be due to negligence by your mother than there is very little you can do to get the money back, but at least you could make a police report.
If the bank will not help you or if they refuse to freeze the account, even if your mother was negligent, then make sure you close her accounts to make sure no more money is withdrawn. You could open up new accounts at a different bank and control the access (for example open a joint account or obtain a power of attorney).
I figured one of the better options was to go to the bank. She's not gonna like that, but I'm not gonna let her throw away more money to some "recovery firm." Thanks for the input.
By money transfer, so you mean e transfer? If you do then, banks cannot recall e transfers once they have been sent at the receiving party has accepted the money. It is mentioned when you send an e transfer. Also you cannot send an e transfer without the cibc app sending you a verification code to your phone number by calling or text.
Hmm... I bank with TD myself, and I don't get any kind of notification on my app when I send e transfers. She doesn't have the CIBC app on her phone though, so maybe CIBC does it differently. It looks to be e transfers from the emails she got, but the money was applied to her line of credit, not actually taken from one of her accounts.
Anytime you send an e transfer to a new contact then cibc sends that verification code. So whoever did it from her account would’ve needed that verification code in order to continue. The only way it wouldn’t ask for the code is if that person is an existing contact, meaning an e-transfer has been sent to them before. The thing is that if your mom was getting hacked and she gave the hacker the code and/or access to her account then it would make sense why cibc said they can’t help. However, if her computer was stolen and they some how logged in and sent the money then it’s a different story and cibc would help. Try talking to them again and ask why they refused to help
You can etransfer funds from any account, even the LOC account. A one time contact was probably used for the transfer. The person that did this must have access credentials. CIBC should be able to trace the date amd timestamp of the transaction.
If you don’t get anywhere after making another call to the bank this website might be a helpful resource.
First, have her change her password.
I went into her account and set up the MFA, while I was in there I looked at the e transfer recipient and saw the unauthorized ones listed there. When I set up the app on her phone, I saw the notifications from fraud alert on there for when they were even added, several of which were attempted more than once as they typo'd the e-mail address in some way, and saw at the bottom of those notifications that there was a number to call if it wasn't done by her so I'm going to get her to call that number and see what can be done. If she had actually had the app on her phone, which she's against for some reason, she would've been notified of this right when it happened...
Recovery firms are people that see you as an easy mark for a 2nd round of fraud. I mean, how could they possibly track down the money without being inside the bank? And not only CIBC, but the other financial institutions that the money may have been transferred to?
The bank must have said more than just "We can't do anything". - what else did they say? Is it fair assumption that your mothers login info was used to access the account? Did she have MFA enabled on the account? Have you filed a police report?