Winnipeg family loses $200K to a pair of scams

A Winnipeg family is out $200,000 after falling victim to a pair of scams. CTV’s Danton Unger reports.

A family in Winnipeg says they are drowning in debt after losing $200,000 in two separate scams.

It started about a year ago when Galina Baileys and her husband wanted to try their hand at investing. They found a company on social media which they believed to be legitimate.

“They were investing in Netflix, in Tesla, those companies. They were showing us how it’s growing,” Galina said, adding the company even added money to their account to show them how the investment works.

“We had our page there on the computer. We could see it. Nobody realized that it was just an empty page. It’s nothing.”

That all changed when, after a few months, their so-called financial advisor started threatening them. They were told the company had taken thousands of dollars of credit on their behalf to invest.

And, they were told they had to pay up—or go to court.

‘He offered me to sell my kidney to pay him’: family falls victim to second scam

With $50,000 down the drain, Galina began looking for help, turning to a U.K.-based lawyer she found on Facebook. She said the lawyer promised they could get her money back with compensation totaling half a million dollars.

“We signed (an) agreement, and it was a very simple agreement, nothing more,” she said.

Galina said they were asked to open a new account and transfer funds into it to for various legal fees and costs.

“I was talking to this guy every single day during three months,” she said, adding the lawyer continued to ask for more and more money.

With their savings drained, Galina said her family started to panic–they took out equity from their home, and loans to pay the lawyer who was getting increasingly persistent.

“I said, ‘We don’t have any money to pay,’” Galina recalled. “He offered me to sell my kidney to pay him.”

While she never went that far, Galina said even her 21-year-old son tried to help.

“When it first started, I pretty much took out a loan every week,” she said. “It burned through all my savings, my retirement, whatever I had in there.”

In the end, Galina said her family took out $150,000 in fast loans, line of credit, credit cards and pension.

“It destroyed our family completely. It destroyed everything. Destroyed our life,” Galina told CTV News. “We didn’t know where to go. We didn’t know what to do.”

Watch for red flags, experts warn

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, investment fraud has cost Canadians more than a billion dollars since 2022.

“It’s really sad, and honestly, it’s something that we see way too often,” said Jeff Honcastle, a client and communications outreach officer with the centre.

He said anyone can be a target to these scams, which can pressure victims into making

Tyler Ritchie, a market surveillance investigator with the Manitoba Securities Commission, said anyone can be a target to these scams.

“That’s a common thing that we see, scammers capitalizing on pressure tactics,” he said, noting in these situations you should take a step back and get a second opinion from a trusted source.

Because once the money is gone, it is hard to get back.

“Fiat (government) currency gets converted into cryptocurrency and then gets moved from wallet to wallet across jurisdictions, and it becomes very difficult to trace,” he said.

The Manitoba Financial Services Agency warns Canadians to be on the look out for red flags:

• Ads or sponsored posts on social media platforms touting a celebrity or politician endorsed investment opportunity
• Investment websites or tools promising a quick, easy way to earn high returns through low-risk or risk-free investments
• Calls, texts, emails, or in-person meetings pressuring a quick investment due to a time-limited, rare, or a secret opportunity
• Being encouraged to communicate over apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, or Discord to “keep conversations private”
• The firm or broker doesn’t ask for a trusted contact person for the account

Both experts suggested searching the firm or broker in question on the AreTheyRegistered.ca public database. It contains a list of legitimate, qualified companies legally allowed to do business in Canada.

Galina said her family has started a GoFundMe, which she hopes will at least help their son get back on his feet. She doesn’t believe they will ever see their money returned, but she hopes her family’s story will be a warning.

“People who are behind the screen. You never know who they are, where they are and what they can do to you,” she said. “They can destroy your life.”