‘The money was gone’: Ontario woman says her $3,500 e-transfer was intercepted and stolen

An Oshawa, Ont., woman was trying to pay $3,500 for a condo rental in Mexico, but says she was shocked when her Interac e-transfer were intercepted.

An Oshawa, Ont., woman who was trying to pay $3,500 for a condo rental in Mexico says her Interac e-Transfer was intercepted and the funds were redirected to a different account.

“Everybody just keeps telling me it’s not their responsibility and it’s too bad for me,” Tracy Barill told CTV News Toronto.

Barill is recently retired and said she decided to take a trip with her husband this past spring. A person in Saskatchewan had a condo for rent in Mexico and asked Barill to send her almost $3,500 to secure it.

Barill told CTV News she checked the email address and e-transferred the funds to the correct address provided.

However, she said she was surprised when the e-mail account of the receiver was hacked and the funds were deposited into an unknown account.

“I did send it to the right email and she didn’t get it. Someone else did and the money was gone.”

The receiver did not have auto-deposit set up and Barill said she unfortunately used a security question that was too easy to guess.

But, she had no idea hacking an e-transfer was possible.

“I got a phone call from the bank that said the money was intercepted by another e-mail,” said Barill.

She did get her vacation, but said she had to pay twice for the trip.

“I had to pay again. So we went to Mexico in March and I had to pay for the entire trip again. It cost me twice as much.”

When CTV News reached out to Interac on Barill’s behalf, a spokesperson said in a statement, “If an individual does not have Interac e-Transfer Autodeposit set up, we recommend selecting security questions with answers that are not easily guessable or based on publicly available information—questions like ‘What city do you live in?’ should be avoided. Additionally, if Canadians need to share their security answer with someone, they are encouraged to use a different communication channel from the one used for the transaction.”

“Interac offers protections to support Canadians who may be victims of financial fraud. If an individual has fallen victim to email fraud and once a payment has been deposited, the sender should contact their financial institution immediately to help on their behalf.”

Protect yourself from e-transfer fraud

“E-transfer fraud is one of the fastest growing financial crimes in Canada,” said Frances Syms, a cyber security expert and associate dean of information and communications technology at Humber Polytechnic.

Syms told CTV News while auto-deposit is not fail-safe, it’s one of the best ways to make sure your e-transfer gets to where it’s supposed to go.

“Auto-deposit helps a lot because as soon as someone’s email is compromised, the e-transfer automatically goes into the bank account that is associated with those particular emails,” said Syms.

Auto-deposit is secure and convenient, helping Canadians protect themselves against email fraud, and verifies transactions are sent to the intended recipient, and the money is automatically deposited without security questions.

However, Syms also recommends enabling dual-factor authentication and getting real time alerts from your bank.

As for Barill, the theft has her reconsidering using e-transfers.

“I will not be using e-transfers for larger amounts of money going forwards.”