After being targeted by someone impersonating a major financial institution, Jeff DeWaal is speaking out, hoping to warn others.
“I don’t want anybody else to get caught up in it, we all work hard for our money,” the Vernon man said.
In December, DeWaal filled out a form requesting investment information from a legitimate-looking website.
Then over a number of weeks DeWaal heard back from someone claiming to be from Deutsche Bank.
“He sent me an email showing me all of their rates, CDIC insured, everything looked above board. He sent me all the financials from Deutsche Bank, called me from the Deutsche Bank number,” DeWaal said.
However, the rates in the email, supposedly from a Deutsche Bank wealth adviser, seemed too good to be true.
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So DeWaal reached out to the company directly.
“They said they do not offer any GICs at all in Canada …and that they were actually getting several phone calls a day about this GIC scam,” DeWaal said.
Then DeWaal spoke to the person who claimed they were from Deutsche Bank one final time.
“After I had talked to Deutsche Bank and found out it was all a scam, he had phoned me again about an hour afterward. Then he was going, ‘Well, how would you like to transfer all this? Can we do it by money order, or do you do PayPal or something like that?’ and that’s when I kind of lost it on the guy and we haven’t been in contact since,” DeWaal said.
Deutsche Bank confirmed the email DeWaal received was not authentic, came from a domain name not associated with the company, and they don’t offer GICs in Canada.
The company said it would be posting a consumer warning on social media.
DeWall is relieved he checked before sending money and says he is happy to get the word out.
“If I can help one person not get caught in it, that is all that matters,” he said.
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