The alarm bells went off for Bill Tomlinson after he got an odd text message — in French — on Feb. 2 from Walmart Canada. The Pelham, Ont., man doesn’t speak French and hadn’t ordered anything.
“I thought, what the heck is that? … oh, something’s gone wrong,” Tomlinson told Go Public.
He logged into his Walmart.ca account and discovered fraudsters were using it and his credit card on file to place orders and ship them to Montreal.
There were four orders, all on that same day. Two were for dumbbells at $500 apiece, the other two for Apple TVs worth about $250 each.
Walmart had cancelled the first three orders on its own, but Tomlinson noticed the last one for an Apple TV had just been shipped. He called Walmart right away to let the company know, expecting the retail giant would refund the order.
Instead, two days later, Tomlinson says Walmart told him the product had been delivered to Montreal and that he was on his own to try to get the money back.
“They basically washed their hands of it,” Tomlinson said.
“They said, there’s nothing more we can do for you. This product was ordered on the account, it was paid for by your credit card, it was delivered by us. We did everything that we were supposed to do.”
He says Walmart told him he would have to “deal with his bank” to see if it would reverse the charge.
The fraudster placed four orders on Bill Tomlinson’s Walmart.ca account for pricey dumbbells and Apple TVs. Their fraud detection system caught three of the transactions — but still shipped an Apple TV. (Walmart.ca)
Independent financial fraud expert Vanessa Iafolla says she gets several calls a week from people looking for advice on how to recoup their losses after being defrauded online.
“Any company that is going to offer online retail services and make it available for clients or customers to set up accounts is responsible for protecting the security of that account,” Iafolla said.
“I think Walmart really is dropping the ball on this.”
‘More than one chance to stop the order’
When Tomlinson first called Walmart, he was told the company’s fraud detection system had caught the first three orders but not the fourth, and that it needed to look into things before taking action.
Tomlinson does not understand the delay, since all the fraudulent orders were placed on the same day for the same products, and the company already knew the first three were a problem.
He also wants to know why Walmart did not stop the delivery after he flagged the fraud. Failing both those things, Tomlinson says the company should have refunded him the charge without hassle.
“They had more than one chance to stop the order,” Tomlinson said.
“They should have owned up to the fact that they had enough time to solve the problem and they didn’t.”
The Walmart.ca website shows the Apple TV was left at the front door of some address in Montreal, more than 650 kilometres from Tomlinson’s address that was on the account. (Bill Tomlinson)
Walmart did not say if it followed up at the Montreal address where the Apple TV was delivered to see who lives there or why its systems failed to flag the fourth fraudulent order.
Go Public wanted to visit the location, but after Tomlinson asked Walmart to lock down his account, he was not able to access the address and Walmart wouldn’t provide details.
The company told Go Public “there was no breach” of its systems and that Tomlinson’s account was taken over by “a bad actor [who] gained access through the customer’s login credentials that were compromised at some point prior to the transactions.”
It said it doesn’t know when or how those credentials were compromised.
WATCH | Customer charged for Apple TV that Walmart shipped to fraudster:
Walmart shipped fraudulent purchases to hacker, left customer to pay for it | Go Public
15 hours ago
Duration 2:04
An Ontario man says after his online Walmart account was hacked, the company shipped some fraudulent purchases to the hacker and said he’d have to cover the costs – until Go Public stepped in. 2:04
How fraudsters access online accounts
The number of “account takeovers” — a term for what happened to Tomlinson — has been increasing over the past six months, according to Kimberly Sutherland, vice president of fraud and identity strategy for LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a company that works with government and businesses to combat online fraud.
A survey report by the company, called The True Cost of Fraud, found Canadian retailers, in general, are doing a poor job of preventing fraud attacks.
In 2021, e-commerce retailers surveyed said they prevented about 4,860 attacks, but failed to stop about 4,800 others.
The survey also suggests online and mobile fraud attacks on retailersappear to be rising since the pandemic started, up 45 per cent in Canada from 2020 to 2021.
The report is based on a survey of 1,118 risk and fraud executives (145 Canadian, 973 U.S.) in small-, mid-, and large-scale retail and e-commerce companies.
Kimberly Sutherland, vice president of fraud and identity strategy for LexisNexis Risk Solutions, says fake accounts and account takeovers are among the most common online retail frauds. (LexisNexis Risk Solutions)
Sutherland says fraudsters get passwords and credentials from websites that are compromised, then reuse them on other sites to see if they work, or they use malicious software that rapidly generates common user and password combinations to get into accounts.
“One of the big challenges with online accounts is that people tend to use the same username and password combinations in multiple accounts. So if one gets compromised, many may end up being compromised,” she said.
Her advice for online shoppers:
Delete online accounts you don’t use anymore, including consumer and government program accounts.
Use strong passwords and change them frequently.
Don’t use the same username and passwords for multiple accounts.
Use the strongest authentication methods available, such as two-factor authentication, which often requires a code sent by text message or another means in addition to a password to access the account.
Inside Walmart’s cyber attack problems
While Walmart says Tomlinson’s problem was caused by compromised credentials — not a cyber attack — Sutherland says companies across the board are dealing with such attacks on a regular basis.
Walmart’s 2021 annual report says the company’s websites and apps are “regularly subject to cyber attacks” which include “attempts to gain unauthorized access … to obtain and misuse customers’ or members’ information including payment information.”
Similar to the LexisNexis survey, the Walmart report says the pandemic has made things even worse.
With more work being done remotely, some of Walmart’s “services and third-party service providers’ systems” have had “limited security breaches.” While those had little impact on operations, the report said, “there can be no assurance of a similar result in the future.”
As for Tomlinson, he did get his money back. After Go Public contacted Walmart, the company refunded the cost of the Apple TV as a goodwill gesture, he says.
He is happy to have his money back but is still deciding if he will shop using Walmart’s website or app again.
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TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
