The CBC story below on a BMO customer expressing genuine frustration with BMO’s fraud department and what she feels is a ‘blame the victim’ fraud case is indicative of the rationale behind naming this WordPress site novaultnofault.com. Like BMO, our financial institutions are aggressively promoting and advertising online and digital banking so the idea of a traditional bricks and mortar bank with the classic Fort Knox like vault is a thing of the past. Hence, comments about is it safe to deposit my money at a bank when suddenly it is removed without me knowing what has happened. Are banks/credit unions doing enough to protect your money that you entrust them with? 

Other fraudster ploys have clients of banks and members of credit unions being duped to be the unsuspecting victim of initiating withdrawals and/or wiring hefty sums of money that should be automatically suspicious to a financial institution when it is a very unusual and atypical transaction on their part to do something so out of the ordinary based on previous patterns and experience. Red flags should be apparent and questions asked. And it should be stated a wire of money can be suspicious whether it is within or outside the country since fraudsters are using major banks within Canada to set up mule accounts to launder money offshore. 

The no fault aspect of this WordPress site regarding looking out for financial fraud is well covered in this CBC story on the Brandon BMO customer’s experience. Banks are shirking their responsibility to take steps as we are seeing in the UK to detect and prevent fraud from being perpetrated on their customers. It seems as mentioned here, the automatic response is for the financial institution to state it is not my fault and blame the victim for what occurred. 

This just reinforces why the Call to Action at this novaultnofault.com site points out why Canada and the provinces through their direct regulation and oversight of credit unions and Caisse Populaires need to do much more to hold financial institutions to account. Moreover, they must bring in meaningful consumer reform as we are seeing in other countries who are serious about tackling money laundering and protecting their citizens from financial fraud. We all need to do more to prevent fraud from happening in the first place since its impact is devastating on an individual and macro level. 

Please click on the highlighted copy below the picture to read the full story.

Manitoba·CBC Investigates

Despite ombudsman complaint, Manitoba woman not optimistic she’ll get money back after bank fraud

Only 24% of complaints to banking services ombudsman last year resulted in monetary compensation: report

Vera-Lynn Kubinec · CBC News · Posted: Apr 11, 2024 5:00 AM CDT | Last Updated: 3 hours ago