'I'm still in shock': Brampton, Ont. landlord caught in e-transfer interception fraud

A Brampton, Ont. landlord says he's shocked after two e-transfers he was meant to receive were blocked from his account by scammers.

"I'm still in shock," Jai Walia, of Brampton, told CTV News Toronto. Walia is a landlord of two units, and he asks his tenants to pay their rent using e-transfers.

In September, Walia was expecting two rent payments of $2,000 and $2,500. Even though the tenants sent him money, Walia said he never received their payment in his bank account.

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Walia found out his email account had been hacked and he was the victim of a scam called Interac e-transfer interception fraud.

Walia said he does not use autodeposit and instead uses security questions. It appears criminals used his email to open up a bank account and set up autodeposit, so any money sent to Walia would automatically go into the scammers' account instead.

"How can one single email be used by two single individuals, which have no connections at all," said Walia. "I feel scared what if this happens again by other means."

Nick Biasini, cybersecurity expert with Cisco Talos, said it is equally important to protect your email address as it is to protect passwords for bank accounts and credit cards.

"Don't discount the importance of your email," said Biasini, who added that a fraudster can see any service an individual has signed up for once they hack into an email address account.

"If your adversary is in your email inbox, it makes it very easy for them to start resetting every password that you have and they will be the ones getting those reset links," said Biasini.

To prevent Interac e-transfer fraud, turn on autodeposit, which Interac says is secure and convenient. Autodeposit helps protect against e-mail fraud, it verifies transactions are sent to the intended recipient and the money is automatically deposited without security questions.

In the end, one of Walia’s tenants got their money back and paid the rent, but the other remains scammed out of $2,000.

Walia has since has changed his account to autodeposit to prevent this from happening again.

"I feel sorry for anyone out there who is getting scammed because of these culprits," said Walia.