An elderly woman is suing the TD bank after she fell victim to a number of fraudulent schemes, relieving her of almost $240,000 of her own money. Here's the thing....the bank was in no way related to the fraud. Over a period of time, the 81 year old fell victim to 26 separate scams, including a lottery scam, and CRA scams. She attended the bank on a number of occasions to get bank drafts to pay the fraudsters who she was unknowingly being duped by. Each individual transaction (draft) was for under $10,000. So who's responsibility is it? (if not hers alone)

 

I think most of us reading this post have been contacted by people posing as CRA. Those nasty voicemail notes telling you that you will be thrown in jail if you don't call back immediately. I can imagine that an 81 year old "anyone" would be perturbed by this, and potentially fall victim to it. Now, being from a banking past, what I know is this: The banks work diligently to identify and report suspicious transactions made by clients....it is a duty of care as a representative of any firm. The report is not disclosed to the client at time of filing. According to this case being made, that is simply not enough. The bank's responsibility extends beyond the current duty of care, and into the client's personal affairs. One of the most challenging parts of banking and finance throughout my 17 year career in that space was acquiring additional information. I can't tell you how many times I heard "aww.....c'mon, why do you need that?", or "why do you ask for so much information".

 

Depending on the the way this case swings, clients may have to be prepared to swing the doors of privacy open even further......I wonder how that will go?

 

I am very interested to hear your thoughts on this one, so please comment.