Brampton landlord caught in wire transfer interception fraud – CP24

A Brampton landlord says he is shocked after two e-transfers he was supposed to receive were blocked from his account by scammers.

“I’m still in shock,” Jai Walia of Brampton told CTV News Toronto. Walia is a landlord of two units and he asks his tenants to pay their rent via e-transfers.

In September, Walia expected two rent payments of $2,000 and $2,500. Although the tenants sent him money, Walia said he never received their payment in his bank account.

Walia discovered that his email account had been hacked and that he was a victim of a scam called Interac e-transfer interception fraud.

Walia said he doesn’t use direct deposit and instead uses security questions. It appears that criminals used his email address to open a bank account and set up direct deposit so that any money sent to Walia will automatically go to the scammers’ account.

“How can a single email be used by two separate individuals, who have no connections at all,” says Walia. “I’m afraid this will happen again in a different way.”

Nick Biasini, a cybersecurity expert at Cisco Talos, said protecting your email address is just as important as protecting passwords for bank accounts and credit cards.

“Don’t underestimate the importance of your email,” says Biasini, who adds that a fraudster can see every service an individual has signed up for once he hacks into an email address account.

“If your opponent is in your email inbox, it becomes very easy for them to reset any password you have, and they will be the ones who receive the reset links,” Biasini said.

To prevent Interac e-transfer fraud, enable direct deposit, which Interac says is safe and easy. Direct deposit protects against email fraud, verifies that transactions are sent to the intended recipient, and funds are automatically deposited without security questions.

Ultimately, one of Walia’s tenants got his money back and paid the rent, but the other was left defrauded of $2,000.

Walia has since changed his account to direct deposit to prevent this from happening again.

“I feel sorry for anyone who is being ripped off because of these perpetrators,” Walia said.