Binh Tran has spent the last six months trying to get her money back after falling victim to a scam call.
One morning in March, she answered a call from someone claiming to be from TD Bank’s fraud prevention department who told her she was needed for an investigation.
“He told me that I … need to withdraw my money for safety,” she said.
She was told to stay on the phone while she entered the bank. She withdrew money through a teller and later deposited it into a bitcoin machine for verification.
She felt something was wrong, but she searched online and found the number the scammer used was the same as what was listed on the bank’s website, leading her to believe the call was real.
In total, she lost $9,800. Earlier this month, she was informed by TD Bank that she would not be reimbursed.
“I think that the TD Bank, they didn’t do anything for investigation,” she said.
“They don’t care about a customer. They don’t care about a customer loss.”
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In a statement, TD Bank declined to comment on details of specific cases and said it understands it can be “distressing” to fall victim to a scam. The bank said it takes reports of fraud “very seriously.”
“I can confirm TD thoroughly reviewed this matter, shared our findings with Binh, and explained to her the rationale behind our decision,” a spokesperson wrote in the statement.
“Helping protect our clients remains a top priority. We have multiple layers of security, monitoring and customer education in place.”
TD offered tips to protect against fraud, including not trusting unsolicited calls and not assuming a phone number is legitimate. It also noted that TD “will never ask” a customer for assistance with an investigation or request passwords or one-time security codes sent to mobile devices or email.
The issue for Tran lies with a form she signed when withdrawing the money with the teller, which takes responsibility off of TD Bank to reimburse her money.
It reads that the bank “has warned me that fraudsters may ask their victims to purchase gift cards or bitcoin,” and that the customer confirmed that the withdrawal was made of their “own free will, without any coercion or pressure from a third party.”
Tran also got police involved, speaking with an officer and filing a report. However, she is not sure how the investigation is progressing.
She said she doesn’t agree with TD and plans to appeal the bank’s decision to the federal banking ombudsman, noting she took the care to check that the bank’s phone number was correct and that she had no reason not to trust it.
“I just work at a Superstore at [a] part-time job, so this is a huge amount. This is my retirement nest, so I cannot lose that amount,” she said.
“I just want my money back to my account. It’s not easy.”
