Oak Bay’s Grady Coolican was going about his day back in April, when he received a surprising email.
“I got an email saying that $2,500 had been transferred out of my account,” says Coolican.
Except it wasn’t him who sent the e-transfer. His account had been hacked.
“They actually added or changed the contact information from my son, making themselves the payee and then they transferred $2300 from my line of credit into my account and e-transferred $2,500,” says Coolican.
It’s now been nearly three months since the money disappeared and still Coolican has been left without any answers as to whether or not he will receive a refund from BMO.
“I’ve tried unsuccessfully to work with them, but they just insist that I sent this money to this person that I don’t know,” says Coolican.
Coolican’s story is similar to that of another islander’s. Franky Man had nearly $15,000 taken from his savings account. Thanks to quick action on his part, he had the majority of his money returned within a month.
READ ALSO: Victoria man loses nearly $15K to online bank theft
“We handled it in a timely manner. We were able to get it recovered and it looks like they were able to track down the funds and get it back,” says Man.
Even after being refunded, Man still does not have any answers on how the fraudster managed to access his account.
“We’re still not sure how we can prevent it happening again to us. It feels like if it happens to us, we just have to go through the same process again,” says Man.
CHEK News reached out to BMO, who said they are looking into Coolican’s case. Still, without any concrete answers, he feels he’s been left out in the cold.
“The bank has all the power and I’m just a guy with a bank account,” says Coolican.
It’s been a hard lesson to learn for Coolican and one that he hopes others don’t have to experience.
Cole Sorenson
