Fraud, dancing, and how we all pay the price

March 19, 2026 · 0 Comments

by SHERALYN ROMAN

While I sometimes share opinions on the state of politics, locally or provincially, and about how some of us might occasionally feel misled by some politicians, today’s column addresses the fact that it’s “Fraud Prevention Month” and how easy it is to be misled in a different way.

Fraudsters seem to be multiplying exponentially and financial institutions aren’t doing enough in response to protect consumer interests. As well, whether it’s happened to you personally or not, ultimately we are all the victims of fraud, because we are all paying for it, one way or another. I’m really damn tired of it. Perhaps you are too?

About a year ago we were the victims of, according to how one bank employee worded it, “an account takeover.” To be clear, we did not hit “reply” to a scam email or text, nor did we randomly answer the phone and then follow the directions of some stranger asking us to provide personal banking information or to go out and buy gift cards to “help spring our grandchild from jail.”

Instead, our account was hacked and in just a few minutes we were suddenly robbed of close to what some people might pay as a mortgage payment. I’m sharing our personal experience for several reasons: I want you to know fraud comes in many forms, and more importantly, that the systems in place to support you, when victimized, don’t always do so. Also, perhaps like some of you, I’m just really, really tired of being a good citizen, obeying the law, paying my taxes and driving the speed limit yet still getting “stiffed” at the end of the day by someone operating from a basement, in a different time zone, who has never worked an honest day in their life.

The bank, in two separate letters sent via snail mail, stated that after completing their “investigation” they found us to be at fault. Not that anyone actually called to speak with us as part of said investigation.

Because I’m a rule follower, I didn’t post angry messages on social media, calling out the bank by “naming and shaming” them. Instead, I continued to follow the rules, “escalating” the matter through various senior teams and eventually the OBSI (Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments) who are supposed to assist on the consumer’s behalf. I had faith in the system. It was misplaced. The system works for the system, not for us mere humans.

Banks might claim they are losing millions to fraud every year and that they are doing everything possible to protect consumers, but the more folks I speak with, it seems to be anything but true. Everyone has a story about being the victim of fraud. Meanwhile, like many large corporations, even if a bank does occasionally incur a loss, you know they are making up for it up through the fees they charge, similar to when big box stores incur repeated theft and we end up paying more for our groceries, clothing or hardware items.

With so many transactions done online these days, and point of sale transactions also flying through the ether, credit cards are also being compromised at alarming rates. Amazon, it appears, is so easy to hack as to be laughable and forget about speaking to an actual employee “live” to get help, it’s literally impossible. Worse still, with mega corporations dotting the consumer landscape meaning less and less competition, consumers truly might be feeling as though, like the aforementioned song implies, they have no choices and nowhere else to take their business. So, in fact we really are simply “dancers,” conditioned to accept the decisions of the mega-corps.

All the current “advice” about avoiding fraud seems focussed on common sense recommendations that I suppose aren’t as common as I thought.

By now we should all know not to share passwords, click on links or respond to those calls from “Johnny Junior in jail.” But what about the thousand and one other ways that honest, hard-working people are being scammed out of their money each and every day? Scams that are harder to detect, or to prevent? I had a credit card compromised at a gas station not too long ago. Am I supposed to stop driving?

We might live in an age of “ease” and “convenience” but it comes at a cost, and it’s an increasingly large one. I’m not happy we were robbed, because whether at the end of a gun barrel or not, that’s what it was, and the bank didn’t do enough to protect us from that theft. We took a big hit but we’ll survive. My concern is what happens to an isolated senior living on a pension, or a single parent struggling to make ends meet, or a newcomer living paycheque to paycheque and English is their second language. How do people advocate for themselves when victimized by fraud if they don’t have the time or the resources to try and seek redress? Who speaks up for all us “dancers” when even the systems meant to support consumers don’t? Fraud leaves us all paying the price.