A Winnipeg woman who lost thousands after scammers got into her bank account almost two months ago says she’s “absolutely shocked” her bank’s fraud department denied her appeals to refund her — disbelief she said comes in part because of how clearly fraudulent some of the transactions the bank allowed were.

Lisa Taron, 62, said the saga began Feb. 12, when she got a call from someone who said they worked for TD Bank’s fraud department and flagged what they said was a potentially fraudulent transaction on her account. The caller also had information about her account already, she said, like her name and details of the last cheque she’d deposited.

Taron said the caller put her on hold several times — where she heard what sounded exactly like TD’s real hold music — and eventually asked her to reply “yes” to a text she would receive to confirm the account they were discussing was hers.

She said she hung up after about two minutes and called her bank directly, and was told her account had been breached and a new debit card was going to be issued. 

But when she checked her account the next day, she saw roughly $2,500 had been drained through repeated $93 withdrawals. Another $2,100 had also been taken by scammers using the bank’s mobile app to deposit the same $100 cheque, made out to someone named Roy Scott, into her account 21 times.

Under Canadian regulations, banks must make up to $100 of funds deposited by cheque available right away. The scammers withdrew the money before the cheques bounced, leaving Taron with a negative $2,100 balance.

Taron said on Monday the bank denied her second appeal of the decision not to refund her the total $4,650 she said was taken, after a scam she described as “almost comical because it’s so dumbfounding.”

“I was angry, but first of all I was shocked. It is so blatantly fraudulent, the transactions — but I was also shocked at how sophisticated it was,” she said, calling the bank’s decision “disgusting.”

“Where is the red flag in their system? If someone is taking out $93 within seconds after another until you get to zero, and if someone is depositing the exact same cheque to a person that’s not even me 21 times? Come on, TD Bank, like — step it up.”

Verify suspicious calls: TD Bank

TD Bank spokesperson Mick Ramos said in a statement the bank was “sorry to hear about Ms. Taron’s situation and understand it can be distressing to be a victim of fraud.”

Ramos said TD couldn’t speak about a specific case because of client privacy, and that “each circumstance is different and assessed individually.”

The statement said caller ID can be faked, and reminded people to verify any suspicious calls or texts from someone claiming to be their bank by calling the number on the back of their bank card.

It said a bank will never contact a client to ask for a one-time passcode sent to a phone or email, and urged people not to share those codes with anyone.

Taron, who lives in a subsidized apartment at a low-income seniors community, said the fraud left her with no money for rent, food or medication. She ended up having to ask her 91-year-old mom for money.

“But what really affected me was knowing that this is happening to people all over,” Taron said, adding “the frightening part” of the scam was that she never gave them her PIN or account number.

“I know there are a lot of frauds where they phone seniors and they [say], ‘Can you get your VISA card out? I mean, that is really, you know, not doing your own due diligence. But this was so slick,” she said.

“What I have learned is never, ever trust a call from a bank.”

Taron said she’s considering taking legal action against TD Bank over the debacle.

“They need to protect their day-to-day customers: the seniors out there, the single moms, the students,” she said. “This could have been devastating. If I didn’t have that family backup, I would have been homeless.”