A Fredericton woman fell victim to a sophisticated online scam, now she's warning others

Scams online are getting more sophisticated and Sandra Pond of Fredericton didn't expect to be the victim of one when she listed a table for sale on Facebook Marketplace.

Immediately after the ad went up, she received a message from someone who was interested.

Her first thought was, "Gosh, I should have asked for more for that table."

Pond asked the individual if he would like to see the table in person. He said hecouldn't because he was out of town.

But, eager to secure the table, he asked if Pond would hold it for him if he sent over the money via Interac e-transfer a popular way for Canadians to share money directly from their bank account.

Pond, having used e-transfer in the past, senther email address and immediately got a reply that there was an Interac e-transfer waiting for her for $30.

So she clicked through, chose her banking establishment, signed in, and went to deposit the money.

A loading symbol started spinning, with a note to not refresh the page as it may take a few minutes.

"In retrospect, I was thinking afterwards, 'a few minutes while I take all your money,'" Pond said.

She said she decided to click out of the loading page because something didn't seem right. It was taking too long.

That was when she saw an email from her bank asking her to change her password. Something was wrong.

Pond did that then immediately called her bank, which advised her that there was suspicious activity, they had locked her account and that the individual had attempted to take $3,000.

WATCH | Nearly scammed: Sandra Pond tells her cautionary tale to the CBC's Jeanne Armstrong:

This woman posted a $30 table on Facebook. She almost lost thousands

5 months ago

Duration 3:51

Sandra Pond was looking to make a few bucks on the popular buy and sell site, but ended up nearly falling victim to a scam that tried to take $3,000 from her account.

Pond had to go into her bank to get her account unlocked, and it was there that she was told this kind of scam is common and she was lucky that she clicked out when she did and the bank picked up on the suspicious activity.

She said the bank informed her that if the scam wasn't immediately caught, the person could've gone in each day, taking out another $3,000 every time.

Fredericton-based cybersecurity expert David Shipley, CEO of Beauceron Security, said online crime sophistication is through the roof.

He said $600 million was reported stolen by Canadians to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, RCMP and other policing agencies last year. He said that figure is believed to be only 10 per cent of the total amount actually stolen from Canadians last year.

Other countries have also seen a rise in these sophisticated scams, said Shipley, and on the U.S. platform Zelle, a similar flow to the scam is used as the one Pond faced.

Shipley said the scammer got ahold of the Interac e-transfer email templates and while Pond's loading icon was spinning, there was a human on the other end, actively getting the credentials and completing the fraud attempt.

Shipley said it's important for people to follow their gut instincts, like Pond who exited the loading screen early.

He said it's important for people like her to share their stories and report fraud attempts since there can often be a lot of shame around getting scammed.

Shipley said organized crime online is "like nothing I have ever seen," and each year, it gets worse.

Meta does have a reporting tool where people can report buyers and sellers as scams, but CBC News did not receive a response from Meta in regards to what is in place to limit fraud on its platform.

Shipley said Facebook Marketplace scams are an example of "Facebook profiting off of offering a service without having any accountability to prevent fraud."

"We have to have a serious conversation about what it means for this company and its impact on our society," he said.

"Because the financial amount is significant. The emotional amount you never get that back. There's no redepositing the lost trust or the fear that this has caused."