Calgary man wins fight over $630 in suspected fraudulent Visa debit charges, after contacting CBC

Steve Gallant says he uses his Tangerine chequing account for small, indulgent purchases, such as coffee, fast food and video games, via a Visa debit card.

So, he became concerned last December when he saw a series of transactions totalling $629.90 from an unknown source: T & TEC TBD.

The 47-year-old Calgarian immediately Googled the unfamiliar initials.

Turns out, they refer to the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission — a legitimate organization — catching Gallant completely off guard.

"I don't have an account with the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission or whatever this is. I haven't left the country in probably 10 years," says Gallant.

"Clearly it's a fraudulent transaction."

Gallant immediately notified Tangerine about the six unapproved transactions and within days the bank credited him back the money.

It was a provisional credit until the bank could investigate what happened.

That was mid December. As time passed Gallant figured the investigation had proven he'd been scammed and the matter was settled, he says.

Then, a few weeks ago, Gallant noticed the transactions were back and without any warning, the $630 had once again been taken from his account. 

Gallant contacted Tangerine looking for answers and a more favourable resolution.

But after spending hours on hold and receiving few answers, Gallant reached out to CBC News to share his story.

Within two days, Tangerine returned the money to Gallant's account again with no explanation.

"It was a frustrating experience, hopefully it is over now," he says.

CBC News reached out to Tangerine, which is an online subsidiary of Scotiabank.

Tangerine declined an interview, but in a statement it says it can't comment on specific client matters for privacy reasons. 

Adding,"we are dealing with our client separately and we believe we can come to a resolution that will satisfy them." 

Charges verified

Gallant says he has no idea how these utility charges appeared on his account.

He says he hasn't been out of the country in years, he doesn't own property in Trinidad and Tobago and when he looked back at his purchases to see if anything looked strange, nothing jumped out.

So he says he was shocked when during one of his recent attempts to find answers, someone at Tangerine told him Visa had verified these six transactions during the investigation.

He was told that's why Tangerine removed the money from his account.

However, Gallant says they didn't tell him how the transactions were verified.

"Somebody is using my chequing account to pay their gas or their power bills in Trinidad and Tobago, and Visa seems to somehow think that that's a legitimate transaction."  

Explanation owed

Financial fraud expert Vanessa Iafolla says Gallant did the right thing in reporting and disputing the suspicious activity in a timely manner to the bank.

And she says to her, even at first glance, these charges appear suspicious. 

People don't usually pay their electricity bills in several instalments over a couple of days, she says.

"What this tells me, is that the person is testing the card working to pay this bill in Trinidad and Tobago," says Iafolla, an assistant professor of criminology at Saint Mary's University in Halifax.

She says the fraudster will first try to see if the customer notices a transaction, whether it will go through and how far they can go.

Relieved, compensated

Iafolla says it also appears Tangerine's customer service failed Gallant, because it neglected to explain the outcome of its investigation and exactly how these transactions were verified before proceeding to take the money.

She says it's unfortunate that it took going public to resolve the matter.

"Institutions should take responsibility for their customers and support them through the processes of getting their money back," says Iafolla.

Gallant says at the end of the day he's just happy to see the $630 back in his account.

The company has also provided him with a $250 credit and apologized for the whole matter.

In an email to Gallant, shared with CBC news, a company spokesperson writes, "the claw-back of provisional credits was done in error."

"I'm just more relieved now than anything," says Gallant.

However, he says a detailed explanation about what the investigation revealed would be helpful.

"I would like to know if they did realize that this was incorrect, or maybe they just didn't like the heat that was coming from being contacted by me numerous times or (CBC news)."