A financial fraud victim says the bank charges interest on thousands of dollars stolen from the account

A victim of a sophisticated bank scam says his bank is now charging interest on a line of credit obtained by a con artist.

James Mathler says he received a call with the same caller ID as his bank, the multi-billion dollar Bank of Montreal (BMO). Reports CBC News.

One of the scammers told the 63-year-old Toronto man that the scammers had accessed his accounts, then asked for a verification code to confirm Mathlier’s identity.

“I knew I shouldn’t have shared the codes over the phone, but he offered me to call the bank back to continue the process. He said we had to act quickly because the money had been withdrawn… I was panicking.

After the Toronto man shared the code, someone made two withdrawals of $7,500 and one withdrawal of $1,452 in Canadian cash from his line of credit over the next day.

After contacting the BMO and the police, Mathelier says the bank selectively paid only the $1,452 withdrawal amount and also charged $200 in monthly interest for the remaining $15,000 debt the fraudsters took.

Mattelier, who is raising a young child at home, says he is at a loss as to why the bank should deny responsibility, but then also pays off a small amount of the missing money.

“It affected my mental health. I can hardly sleep.”

Vanessa Yavola, an anti-fraud consultant interviewed by Radio Canada, said BMO missed a “flagrant red flag” when the two large withdrawals were made on two consecutive days.

Although it issued a partial refund, BMO says Mathelier is not covered by the bank’s policies on fraud.

Please note that this is a scam, which unfortunately is not covered by our fraud services; therefore, Bank of Montreal is not liable for the loss incurred.

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