Ripped off- the cloned bank card fiasco

Well, how about that… ol’ Al has had a bit of a rough week, to say the least. It started off innocently enough, but it’s turned into an exercise in frustration. I was checking my account balances yesterday to make sure that my pay had gone in, and it did, but I also got another fun surprise. Someone had cloned my bank card! Apparently some yahoo made a deposit of $2222.22 (obviously an empty envelope) and then took out whatever he could from my account. Thankfully, I have limits on my access card otherwise I would have been more screwed than I ended up being. As it stands, the thief made off with half of my pay cheque.

I’ll admit that I’m surprised at how quickly the ScotiaBank’s card security team noticed the activity, and am equally happy that they blocked my card from further use pending a visit from me down at the branch. That being said, I think our friends at my local branch in Montreal need to brush up on their procedures. I went in and spoke with a teller, who then broke out a few forms for me to fill out. He also got me a new access card. That’s all fine and well, but the guy didn’t even ask me for any form of ID! I would have thought that, before handing over a new bank card for an account that had been flagged for suspicious transactions, that proof of identification would be in order!

Things went downhill from there as this teller explained to me that I would have to initiate the investigation through my home branch. Only problem is that my home branch is in LONDON, ONTARIO! A little common sense here, please?! So he assures me that he would be sending my forms on to my home branch and they could proceed from there. I was also forced to sign a form that said that, pending the results of the investigation, that I MIGHT NOT get my money back. So as the month end approaches, ol’ Al may be maxing out his overdraft to pay rent. Not cool.

So I decide to call the friendly folks at telephone banking to see who I would contact to place a complaint about the teller and their procedures and, in doing so, learned that the teller had messed up again! In creating the new card, he lifted the limits on the previously blocked card so that the information could be transferred to my new card. Then he forgot to close the profile on the old card, meaning that the cloned card was now fully operational again. Had the skimmers decided to try again, they could have taken me for more money! Please, someone take this guy aside and retrain him!

But wait! There’s more! I followed up with my branch in London and they hadn’t heard a word from the gang in Montreal. So my question is: what the heck is going on?!?! I’ve voiced my concerns to the branch manager on Montreal, as well as my home branch, so hopefully something will get resolved relatively quickly. I want my money back!

So how did this happen? Good question. I have my suspicions, though. I had gone to la Belle Province on Tuesday night because I had a craving for poutine and they didn’t have a POS machine. So I was forced to use one of those independent EZ cash machines. I hate those things because they ding me with service charges. I believe someone had some sort of card reader hooked into this one and I didn’t notice. The next day, someone in Laval is making the fake deposit and the withdrawl. And on a sidenote, the poutine didn’t particularly agree with me that night and I ended up calling in sick the next day while my account was being drained. Coincidence? Doubtful. I lose a day’s pay, plus half my last pay cheque because I had a craving for poutine. Guess we know what I’ll be giving up for Lent. Til next time…