My mom got a call from someone saying they were a bank employee and received a code on her phone - then she lost $15,000

A concerned daughter claimed that her 81-year-old mother was a victim of fraudulent activity.

Laurie Johnson recalled an incident while speaking with CTV News about a Bank of Montreal (BMO) scam that lost her mother $15,000.

According to Johnson, her mother fell into a trap after she received a one-time passcode from her bank that a scammer, who claimed to be a BMO employee, used to access her account.

The fraudster then used that code to log into her account and they later sent $15,000 to an account in Bangladesh.

'She has never, and I have never, done a global money transfer,' Johnson told CTV News in March 2024.

'Would they not flag that and make a phone call or just stop it and try to find out if that was in fact made by the client? It just seems like it's too easy for that to happen.'

Laurie Johnson recalled an incident on CTV News about a Bank of Montreal (BMO) that her 81-year-old mother fell for

According to Johnson, the $15,000 was sent to an overseas bank account in Bangladesh and she has been working to get her mother's money back for at least two months

Laurie Johnson recalled an incident on CTV News about a Bank of Montreal (BMO) that her 81-year-old mother fell for (Pictured: Stock photo of a woman on her phone)

BMO was founded in Montreal, Quebec in the 1800s, and it is currently the oldest bank in Canada.

Its website reads that the goal of BMO is 'to boldly grow the good in business and life.'

BMO provides personal and commercial banking and global markets and investment banking services to more than 10 million individuals.

Johnson's mother is one of those individuals and despite her account being associated with that bank, her aggravated daughter is frustrated with the bank's actions.

'She has been a customer with the Bank of Montreal for 60 years and I have been as well,' said Johnson.

'You would think with all of the profits they report, that they would be able to help out their customers.'

Johnson is now acting as her mother's power of attorney and has claimed that she's been trying to get her mother's money back for months. 

However, Johnson's mother is not the only victim of a BMO scam.

Several BMO customers have been retelling their stories on being scammed and losing thousands of dollars to scammers in a group on WhatsApp

Ottawa resident Katya Feder told CTV News a similar scamming story that happened to her in April 2023.

Feder claimed that she too was tricked by a scammer who claimed to be a BMO employee while they spoke on the phone. 

The incident began after the so-called employee called her to ask if a transaction to purchase cryptocurrency from her account was legitimate.

'I said OK, great! They are keeping on top of things at the bank. Wonderful,' said Feder. 

'Then she said "we're just going to verify your identity; we're just going to send you a verification code.'"

Once she repeated the code to the scammer, her account was compromised, and she lost $14,500.

'I was completely shocked. Flabbergasted. I mean, I was in disbelief really,' she stated.

She added that other BMO customers have shared their own scam stories on a WhatsApp group.

The group was created in January 2024, and it contains 'various stories of fraud that occurred through their bank in different ways.'

Katya Feder told CTV News that she lost $14,500 after a scammer, who claimed to be a BMO employee, sent her a one-time passcode in April 2023. (Pictured: Stock photo of a woman on her phone)

Christine and Kevin Avey of Norwich, Ontario, were also victims of fraud, and they did not like the answers BMO gave them about the problem.

A scammer asked Kevin to confirm his identity by submitting a one-time password while he was trying to log into the BMO website.

He woke up the next day and discovered that $15,000 was taken from them and put into an overseas account.

'I had only made deposits into this account, and this large amount of a transaction was allowed to go through without even notifying us or just not allowing the transaction to be completed,' Christine wrote in an email to CTV News.

BMO has responded to the couples complaints, but like Johnson, they were not happy with the bank's response.

'BMO explained that if we did not give it to anyone, then we did not take reasonable care in protecting our password,' Christine wrote.

'This seems to be the standard line BMO give to their customers instead of the BMO implementing stronger security measures or perhaps a smaller limit allowed on a global transfers.'

The couple spoke with a local BMO manager, and they ended up receiving $7,500 from the bank.

However, the manager claimed that the money was sent to them as an act of 'good faith' and that it is against bank policy.

BMO has since warned their customers to take extra security measures so that they will have a lower risk of being scammed.

Christine and Kevin Avey of Norwich, Ontario discovered that $15,000 was removed from their BMO account. The Avey's received $7,500 from the bank soon afterward. (Pictured: Stock photo of a couple looking at bills)

The bank said in their statement that it 'encourages customers to be diligent in protecting their online and mobile credentials.'

Some of BMO's suggestions including signing up for alerts to monitor bank accounts, frequently chained passwords and PIN numbers, and to never disclose passwords and one time passcodes.

'In the normal course, when a customer receives a one-time passcode, it is accompanied by the following disclosure: 'Warning: this code grants access to your accounts,' the statement read.

'Calls to request it may be a scam. If called, hang up and call the number on BMO card.'

Daily Mail has reached out to BMO for comment.