Vancouver Island TD customers see fraudulent charges from DoorDash

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TD customers in Parksville are among those across Canada that have been getting fraudulent DoorDash charges on their debit cards.

It’s a scam that’s affected debit cards of consumers across the country, including here on Vancouver Island.

Customers of TD Canada Trust have been seeing fraudulent charges from DoorDash taken from their accounts, despite most victims not even use the service.

Lisa Redl and her husband didn’t hear from their bank about the fraud but instead saw a social media post warning about it.

“My husband, sure enough, he checks [and there’s] $166 off TD and we’ve never used [DoorDash]. I don’t even know what DoorDash is actually.”

Further checking found another DoorDash charge for $59 by a food delivery app that doesn’t even operate in Parksville.

“You know DoorDash. It doesn’t really stick out to you either so we would’ve completely overlooked it,” said Redl.

Redl says from the social media post she saw she believes at least 40 people in the area were victims.

“It turned out it was on my husband’s debit card and he never uses his debit card other than to take out cash,” said Donna Tyler, who also lives in the region.

Tyler went to her TD branch Thursday to ensure her father hadn’t fallen prey after her husband and son had been fraudulently charged.

“It was like 67 dollars and door dash actually refunded me the money. My son got hit for over $900,” said Tyler.

Social media complaints show the fraud has occurred not just in Parksville, but across the country.

In a statement, TD says a small percentage of its 11 million customers are affected.

TD Canada Trust says the issue has been resolved with the merchant and they “have safeguards in place that are designed to prevent unauthorized access to our customers’ personal information and it would be inaccurate to say that there was a data breach.”

DoorDash says it’s working with TD to reimburse victims, however, neither company explained how the fraud occurred.

It’s a reminder to consumers, however, that debit cards have changed.

“There’s no real such thing as debit cards anymore,” said Ritesh Kotak, a Cybersecurity Expert.

Kotak says many Canadians are unaware that banks linked most personal accounts to Mastercard and Visa-branded debit cards years ago to enable online purchases.

“It’s not your bank account that’s getting hacked, it’s your debit Visa card that’s being compromised,” said Kotak.

That means the money comes straight out of your bank account.

As for the recent DoorDash scam, victims say the refunds have been taking weeks.

“The bank did a fraud-charge investigation and then gave him the money back about three weeks later,” said Tyler about her son’s charges.

Lisa Redl says her husband got their money back but she worries for the seniors.

“What about the seniors who aren’t as web-savvy to look at their statements and you know it just says DoorDash,” said Redl.

Consumers can contact their financial institution to put a zero limit on their bank cards for online transactions and experts say these days, that may be wise.

Police say scammers have also been using COVID-19 to convince people out of their money.

Kendall HansonKendall Hanson

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