Barbara Grant was one in every of many Canadians who discovered themsleves lonely throughout the pandemic.
For the primary time in her life, she got down to discover a connection on an internet courting website.
That’s when she met Michael Janda.
“We began speaking… he mentioned, ‘You’re attractive, I wish to be with you,’” Grant mentioned.
The 2 shortly fashioned a bond. Janda’s profile mentioned he labored in the identical oil and fuel trade the place she had constructed a profitable profession.
Because the weeks glided by, they spoke about plans of marriage and shopping for a house collectively in Victoria, B.C.
Then got here the requests that preyed on her feelings.
“He informed me he was caught in Doha, Qatar, carrying $1.5 million in money,” she mentioned, “And police put him in jail.”
The 2 continued to speak on LinkedIn after shifting away from the courting website the place they first related.
Over a interval of almost a 12 months, Grant despatched Janda cash in a number of financial institution transfers — first to a trucking firm in Ontario, then a person within the U.S.
Then someday in November, Grant realized her mistake — Janda wasn’t who he mentioned he was.
“He contacted me by means of LinkedIn and mentioned, ‘I can’t come to Calgary any extra, they’ve locked me up once more.’ He was coming to the airport and I used to be going to select him up.
“I then realized it was a rip-off.”
Grant misplaced $800,000 CAD — her life’s financial savings.
“I’ve nothing left, besides what’s in my (Registered Retirement Revenue Fund). I’m devastated by it… completely devastated.”
Falling right into a deep melancholy, Grant was checked right into a psychological well being unit on a number of events in Calgary. She contemplated ending her personal life.
Then she took motion, hiring a B.C.-based private investigator to look into her case. Six months later, Denis Gagnon had compiled a 400-page report.
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“It’s principally a every day occasion,” Gagnon mentioned, explaining his work.
“It’s an epidemic.”
Gangon was in a position to hint the transfers Grant despatched. He says these recipients are generally known as “mules.”
“The cash that’s being transferred goes by means of a mule and goes to a distinct account. That particular person takes a proportion after which sends it abroad.”
However who was in the end behind all of it continues to be a thriller.
The prolonged report was then forwarded on to the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Interests, which earlier this week dominated in favour of Grant’s financial institution, TD.
“I need TD Canada Belief to find out about what occurred to me… it has ruined my life,” Grant mentioned.
“The financial institution will not be accountable, not accountable… they’ve a fiduciary accountability to me to offer me a few of my a refund.”
In 2024, TD confronted fines on either side of the Canada/U.S. border — first in Could, when Fintrac fined the bank $9.2 million for a spread of failures together with not submitting suspicious transaction stories when there was affordable grounds to require it to take action, not assessing and documenting cash laundering/terrorist exercise financing dangers and for the financial institution not taking prescribed particular measures for top threat.
CIBC and RBC had been additionally fined comparable quantities.
However that quantity was then dwarfed months later in the US, when TD turned the biggest financial institution in U.S. historical past to plead responsible to violating a federal legislation geared toward stopping money laundering, and agreed to pay over $3 billion in penalties to resolve the costs.
In that case, TD mentioned its program was “inadequate to successfully monitor, detect, report, and reply to suspicious exercise” and work is underway to treatment the deficiencies.
International Information requested TD officers for a press release on enhancements to that program and additional protections for its purchasers, however didn’t hear again by deadline.
Grant says she’s wanting right into a debt consolidation mortgage so as to wipe her arms clear from a years-long ordeal that has altered her world.
However she additionally needs her story to function a warning to others — if it could actually occur to this savvy, profitable 75-year-old, it could actually occur to anybody.
“Persons are ashamed to speak about it… I’m not.”
“When somebody comes ahead and is keen to speak about what occurred, we actually needs to be commending them,” defined Wes Lafortune of the Better Business Bureau of Alberta.
Lafortune estimates solely 5 per cent of those kind of crimes are in the end reported and consciousness could make an enormous distinction.
“It’s actually vital to report these crimes to police, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Higher Enterprise Bureau… so these organizations can decide what kind of sources could be put into this.”
Gagnon says it’s going to take rather more than established order to show the tide on this case.
“I believe Canada has grow to be a little bit of a goal for fraudsters. In the US, I imagine the penalties are rather more extreme. Canada is (nonetheless working by means of that),” Gagnon defined.
“Most individuals don’t break right into a home now by means of the door. They arrive in by means of your telephone — or the display you’re taking a look at.”
Grant was able to spend her golden years travelling, downsizing her residence and spending time along with her kids. Now at 75, she says she’ll probably return to work as a marketing consultant within the fall.
She additionally sells her own paintings and dances. She’s fairly the catch — however you received’t discover her on any courting websites.
“No. No. I’ve some good associates, that’s it, that’s all,” she mentioned.
“I actually don’t belief lots of people anymore.”
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