Law/fraud procedure advise please, my wife was a victim of fraud from California, we called your police

[shockedcanadian]

So, long story short, wife noticed a charge in her account which she never made. She called the company (it's a large one) to tell them she had been defrauded, they are reversing the charge as it was clear to them also it's fraud (especially since the mailing delivery address is in Cali).

As circumstances were, they didn't ship the order yet, but, they did tell my wife to call the police in California, give them the Fed Ex account number and have the police call them back for the details as they have their name and address.

I thought it was an odd approach, so I told my wife, "do what they say, but I think they should call them not you". Regardless, my wife called the police in Cali, and the officer she spoke to told her "it doesn't work like that" and advised her to call OUR police in Ontario (why?). They even went so far as to say "unfortunately, this person might not be caught (huh?)"

We are concerned of someone else being a victim of fraud because this company had been hacked in the past and this account information is what they probably used to make another order (quite a large one, different items surely).

Does contacting OUR police for a fraud case in California make sense to any of you? I have to say, it doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Corazon]

I think you should contact your police. Then they will tell you what to do (and maybe they could contact local police in California)

 

[shockedcanadian]

I think you should contact your police. Then they will tell you what to do (and maybe they could contact local police in California)

Our police don't have jurisdiction though, and the police basically left it up to my wife to decide what to do. Sounds like they have far too many of these to deal with I suppose, probably far more rampant there than here, especially with all the online ordering.

 

[JustAnotherNut]

Getting your money back is probably your best option, and they've already done that. Getting justice against the offender is probably not going to happen.

Your wife may want to cancel or close that account from further fraud.....and open a new one

 

[Corazon]

Why don't you call an attorney at law shockedcanadian? I think he can easily solve this problem.
He will tell you what to do (call the Canadian police first or some Californian police departments or whatnot)
I think this is the best way to handle with this difficult situation

 

[shockedcanadian]

Getting your money back is probably your best option, and they've already done that. Getting justice against the offender is probably not going to happen.

Your wife may want to cancel or close that account from further fraud.....and open a new one

I don't think it was done from her account, but through the account she had opened with this company.

We do seem to have a great deal of these types of things happen to us, especially over the last few years...

 

[JustAnotherNut]

Getting your money back is probably your best option, and they've already done that. Getting justice against the offender is probably not going to happen.

Your wife may want to cancel or close that account from further fraud.....and open a new one

I don't think it was done from her account, but through the account she had opened with this company.

We do seem to have a great deal of these types of things happen to us, especially over the last few years...

So the company accounts were hacked?

Either way, the hackers may still have your wifes info since they've used it....and they can now use her info to buy other stuff from other places.

I would still close that account and even change all her accounts. Bank, credit cards, etc

 

[shockedcanadian]

Getting your money back is probably your best option, and they've already done that. Getting justice against the offender is probably not going to happen.

Your wife may want to cancel or close that account from further fraud.....and open a new one

I don't think it was done from her account, but through the account she had opened with this company.

We do seem to have a great deal of these types of things happen to us, especially over the last few years...

So the company accounts were hacked?

Either way, the hackers may still have your wifes info since they've used it....and they can now use her info to buy other stuff from other places.

I would still close that account and even change all her accounts. Bank, credit cards, etc

The problem is, there's no way to contact the bank, we tried multiple times, their system has basically crashed or has "crashed" (been this way since last week according to many people), as they either don't want to address the mortgage deferrals, or, are being overrun by requests. Even the local branch is closed.

Just so Americans understand, our economy is about to collapse. At least a deep recession, more than likely a depression. Once we get through this virus, we will see 3x the already high level of unemployment, and, wages go DOWN due to it now being an employers market (not that it wasn't before). There is no question, we are experiencing something unseen before. Maybe worse than 1929.

You, as a nation, had 2.5M unemployment requests I heard as of yesterday, Canadas MUCH smaller population and economy already had over 1M, and, this is BEFORE the ordered shutdowns in Ontario, B.C and other places. I wouldn't even be surprised if you see a steady flow of desperate Canadians to your border at some point.

All of this, thanks to the Communist Party of China. Just the latest reason for me to despise them beyond my own ideology against socialism and the abuses they unleash on their own citizens.

 

[JustAnotherNut]

Getting your money back is probably your best option, and they've already done that. Getting justice against the offender is probably not going to happen.

Your wife may want to cancel or close that account from further fraud.....and open a new one

I don't think it was done from her account, but through the account she had opened with this company.

We do seem to have a great deal of these types of things happen to us, especially over the last few years...

So the company accounts were hacked?

Either way, the hackers may still have your wifes info since they've used it....and they can now use her info to buy other stuff from other places.

I would still close that account and even change all her accounts. Bank, credit cards, etc

The problem is, there's no way to contact the bank, we tried multiple times, their system has basically crashed or has "crashed" (been this way since last week according to many people), as they either don't want to address the mortgage deferrals, or, are being overrun by requests. Even the local branch is closed.

Just so Americans understand, our economy is about to collapse. Once we get through this virus, we will see 3x the already high level of unemployment, and, wages go DOWN due to it now being an employers market (not that it wasn't before). There is no question, we are experiencing the something unseen. You had 2.5M unemployment requests I heard as of yesterday, Canadas MUCH smaller population and economy already had over 1M, and, this is BEFORE the ordered shutdowns in Ontario, B.C and other places.

I wouldn't even be surprised if you see a steady flow of desperate Canadians to your border.

All of this, thanks to the Communist Party of China.

As far as I know our banks haven't shut down as yours have YET. Since your problem can't really be addressed under the circumstances, I'd suggest NOT to use any type of accounts and hopefully you have some cash to make any needed purchases. This way, atleast till things get turned around, it is recorded that you haven't used any accounts since the fraud(hopefully) and you can then, revisit the problem. IDK, right now we're all living in some strange times. Wish you & your wife the best of outcomes.

 

[shockedcanadian]

Getting your money back is probably your best option, and they've already done that. Getting justice against the offender is probably not going to happen.

Your wife may want to cancel or close that account from further fraud.....and open a new one

I don't think it was done from her account, but through the account she had opened with this company.

We do seem to have a great deal of these types of things happen to us, especially over the last few years...

So the company accounts were hacked?

Either way, the hackers may still have your wifes info since they've used it....and they can now use her info to buy other stuff from other places.

I would still close that account and even change all her accounts. Bank, credit cards, etc

The problem is, there's no way to contact the bank, we tried multiple times, their system has basically crashed or has "crashed" (been this way since last week according to many people), as they either don't want to address the mortgage deferrals, or, are being overrun by requests. Even the local branch is closed.

Just so Americans understand, our economy is about to collapse. Once we get through this virus, we will see 3x the already high level of unemployment, and, wages go DOWN due to it now being an employers market (not that it wasn't before). There is no question, we are experiencing the something unseen. You had 2.5M unemployment requests I heard as of yesterday, Canadas MUCH smaller population and economy already had over 1M, and, this is BEFORE the ordered shutdowns in Ontario, B.C and other places.

I wouldn't even be surprised if you see a steady flow of desperate Canadians to your border.

All of this, thanks to the Communist Party of China.

As far as I know our banks haven't shut down as yours have YET. Since your problem can't really be addressed under the circumstances, I'd suggest NOT to use any type of accounts and hopefully you have some cash to make any needed purchases. This way, atleast till things get turned around, it is recorded that you haven't used any accounts since the fraud(hopefully) and you can then, revisit the problem. IDK, right now we're all living in some strange times. Wish you & your wife the best of outcomes.

Strange times indeed. It's been this way in Canada for far too long, especially when the division between the authorities and banking, among other essential activities, that is supposedly in the private sector, is anything but...

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Do you know the address where the items were shipped and the alleged name of the recipient or were they using your wife's name and just having the items sent to the California address? If you know the address, have you looked it up to see if it's a commercial or residential address?

 

[shockedcanadian]

Do you know the address where the items were shipped and the alleged name of the recipient or were they using your wife's name and just having the items sent to the California address? If you know the address, have you looked it up to see if it's a commercial or residential address?

It wasn't under my wifes name. They wouldn't provide it to us unfortunately.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Do you know the address where the items were shipped and the alleged name of the recipient or were they using your wife's name and just having the items sent to the California address? If you know the address, have you looked it up to see if it's a commercial or residential address?

It wasn't under my wifes name. They wouldn't provide it to us unfortunately.

What's your ultimate goal?

I understand the unease involved in situations such as these when someone has your information and uses it to your detriment but unfortunately, from what I've gathered it might not be easy to get anyone willing to advocate on her behalf or want to pursue this from a legal perspective since she's already been "made whole", this referring to the fact that the bank/credit card company reimbursed her for her losses.

If you want to discuss this further, send me a Private Message and I can go over a couple of avenues that might net you some results but none of it is guaranteed and depends on how much time you're interested in investing in obtaining your desired resolution.

 

[fncceo]

If the company involved made any effort to fulfill the order, successful or not, it's a civil case, not criminal.

Even if they didn't, it would be very difficult to prove criminal fraud.

 

[shockedcanadian]

Do you know the address where the items were shipped and the alleged name of the recipient or were they using your wife's name and just having the items sent to the California address? If you know the address, have you looked it up to see if it's a commercial or residential address?

It wasn't under my wifes name. They wouldn't provide it to us unfortunately.

What's your ultimate goal?

I understand the unease involved in situations such as these when someone has your information and uses it to your detriment but unfortunately, from what I've gathered it might not be easy to get anyone willing to advocate on her behalf or want to pursue this from a legal perspective since she's already been "made whole", this referring to the fact that the bank/credit card company reimbursed her for her losses.

If you want to discuss this further, send me a Private Message and I can go over a couple of avenues that might net you some results but none of it is guaranteed and depends on how much time you're interested in investing in obtaining your desired resolution.

Our ultimate goal after being reimbursed was to prevent others from being impacted as well. If this person did it to us, they are probably doing it to others.

Especially now with people struggling, we wouldn't want someone to be burned and not able to eat or what have you.

I have enough information that I could find out more. Assuming we don't hear back from the company, we will consider it out of our hands, we did our part. I assume this type of thing is quite rampant in large companies.

Per the Cali officer, who was friendly, and told us "we'd like to catch them too, believe me", it doesn't sound promising.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Do you know the address where the items were shipped and the alleged name of the recipient or were they using your wife's name and just having the items sent to the California address? If you know the address, have you looked it up to see if it's a commercial or residential address?

It wasn't under my wifes name. They wouldn't provide it to us unfortunately.

What's your ultimate goal?

I understand the unease involved in situations such as these when someone has your information and uses it to your detriment but unfortunately, from what I've gathered it might not be easy to get anyone willing to advocate on her behalf or want to pursue this from a legal perspective since she's already been "made whole", this referring to the fact that the bank/credit card company reimbursed her for her losses.

If you want to discuss this further, send me a Private Message and I can go over a couple of avenues that might net you some results but none of it is guaranteed and depends on how much time you're interested in investing in obtaining your desired resolution.

Our ultimate goal after being reimbursed was to prevent others from being impacted as well. If this person did it to us, they are probably doing it to others.

Especially now with people struggling, we wouldn't want someone to be burned and not able to eat or what have you.

I have enough information that I could find out more. Assuming we don't hear back from the company, we will consider it out of our hands, we did our part. I assume this type of thing is quite rampant in large companies.

Per the Cali officer, who was friendly, and told us "we'd like to catch them too, believe me", it doesn't sound promising.

Well if nothing else, you can file online complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (Federal Trade Commission)and the California Attorney General's office (Protecting Consumers) - they both deal with identity theft and issues concerning consumer protection.

If they receive enough complaints regarding the same company or individual(s) they can and will at times take action against them. Worse case scenario, you did your part and reported the incident. Best case scenario, one of the offices takes action and the individuals are caught.

I wish you both the best, whatever you all decide. Stay safe...

 

[shockedcanadian]

Do you know the address where the items were shipped and the alleged name of the recipient or were they using your wife's name and just having the items sent to the California address? If you know the address, have you looked it up to see if it's a commercial or residential address?

It wasn't under my wifes name. They wouldn't provide it to us unfortunately.

What's your ultimate goal?

I understand the unease involved in situations such as these when someone has your information and uses it to your detriment but unfortunately, from what I've gathered it might not be easy to get anyone willing to advocate on her behalf or want to pursue this from a legal perspective since she's already been "made whole", this referring to the fact that the bank/credit card company reimbursed her for her losses.

If you want to discuss this further, send me a Private Message and I can go over a couple of avenues that might net you some results but none of it is guaranteed and depends on how much time you're interested in investing in obtaining your desired resolution.

Our ultimate goal after being reimbursed was to prevent others from being impacted as well. If this person did it to us, they are probably doing it to others.

Especially now with people struggling, we wouldn't want someone to be burned and not able to eat or what have you.

I have enough information that I could find out more. Assuming we don't hear back from the company, we will consider it out of our hands, we did our part. I assume this type of thing is quite rampant in large companies.

Per the Cali officer, who was friendly, and told us "we'd like to catch them too, believe me", it doesn't sound promising.

Well if nothing else, you can file online complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (Federal Trade Commission)and the California Attorney General's office (Protecting Consumers) - they both deal with identity theft and issues concerning consumer protection.

If they receive enough complaints regarding the same company or individual(s) they can and will at times take action against them. Worse case scenario, you did your part and reported the incident. Best case scenario, one of the offices takes action and the individuals are caught.

I wish you both the best, whatever you all decide. Stay safe...

Thank you kind sir.

 

[Porter Rockwell]

So, long story short, wife noticed a charge in her account which she never made. She called the company (it's a large one) to tell them she had been defrauded, they are reversing the charge as it was clear to them also it's fraud (especially since the mailing delivery address is in Cali).

As circumstances were, they didn't ship the order yet, but, they did tell my wife to call the police in California, give them the Fed Ex account number and have the police call them back for the details as they have their name and address.

I thought it was an odd approach, so I told my wife, "do what they say, but I think they should call them not you". Regardless, my wife called the police in Cali, and the officer she spoke to told her "it doesn't work like that" and advised her to call OUR police in Ontario (why?). They even went so far as to say "unfortunately, this person might not be caught (huh?)"

We are concerned of someone else being a victim of fraud because this company had been hacked in the past and this account information is what they probably used to make another order (quite a large one, different items surely).

Does contacting OUR police for a fraud case in California make sense to any of you? I have to say, it doesn't make sense to me.

Okay, I'm not getting all the facts. Is this Ontario, Canada? If so, long story short, it's so small that the cops won't do anything. That is why so much scamming is done from foreign countries.

 

[Bruce_T_Laney]

I think you should contact your police. Then they will tell you what to do (and maybe they could contact local police in California)

Our police don't have jurisdiction though, and the police basically left it up to my wife to decide what to do. Sounds like they have far too many of these to deal with I suppose, probably far more rampant there than here, especially with all the online ordering.

Seeing it deals with two countries ( U.S. and Canada ) it should fall under Interpol jurisdiction seeing the hackers are most likely using a drop location and someone to fence the merchandise and then send the money via Western Union or other means to another country to fund a criminal operation or possible terrorism.

Now some will go " WTF " but when I read what you wrote it came across as international hackers using stolen information which will fall more under Interpol...

Financial crime

Financial crime threatens people in every aspect of their lives: at home, at work, online and offline.

www.interpol.int

So contact your local authorities and file also with the Federal authorities and also file a complaint with interpol...

 

[Porter Rockwell]

I think you should contact your police. Then they will tell you what to do (and maybe they could contact local police in California)

Our police don't have jurisdiction though, and the police basically left it up to my wife to decide what to do. Sounds like they have far too many of these to deal with I suppose, probably far more rampant there than here, especially with all the online ordering.

Seeing it deals with two countries ( U.S. and Canada ) it should fall under Interpol jurisdiction seeing the hackers are most likely using a drop location and someone to fence the merchandise and then send the money via Western Union or other means to another country to fund a criminal operation or possible terrorism.

Now some will go " WTF " but when I read what you wrote it came across as international hackers using stolen information which will fall more under Interpol...

Financial crime

Financial crime threatens people in every aspect of their lives: at home, at work, online and offline.

www.interpol.int

So contact your local authorities and file also with the Federal authorities and also file a complaint with interpol...

That is the right course of action, but with the dollar amounts being so small, they don't do much to stop the petty crime, so the criminals can hit a lot of people for small amounts with minimal risk.