B.C. couple told they owe $100K after identity thieves buy SUV with fraudulent loan

An Abbotsford couple is speaking out about what they call an identity theft nightmare.

Scotiabank has been sending Joey Abra and his wife letters to start paying a $99,378.80 loan that was taken out to purchase a 2016 Range Rover.

It turns out Joey Abra’s wife was the victim of identity theft.

On Dec. 5, someone walked into a dealership to get the vehicle loan. The Abras were only told that the dealership was somewhere in Western Canada.

Within days, ICBC called Joey’s wife to say a fraudulent driver’s licence number was used to register the vehicle in her name.

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Right away, the couple called Scotiabank. As requested, they handed in a notarized letter and police report to the Abbotsford branch.

Two months went by before they started getting collection letters from Scotiabank.

They contacted the fraud department and were told that the department never got their paperwork, and the case had to be reopened.

They’ve just recently received another letter saying they have 10 days to make a $4,500 payment.

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“They said get your police report done and get a notarized letter. We did both those things, brought it to the branch,” Joey Abra says.

“Our understanding was that was it and they would put it to fraud investigation and we’re good. But then we started getting letters from them saying, ‘You haven’t paid us money.’”

Scotiabank has launched an investigation but says it can’t comment because of privacy concerns.

A written statement from the bank reads, “Scotiabank has strong internal controls and processes in place, and continually invests in people, processes and technology to improve preventive and detective measures.”

The Abras say they’ve spent hours and hours on the phone with the bank trying to clear this all up. They were recently told it could take another 10 days, but Abra says he’s skeptical.