Christine Mason of Edmonton says she was pleased last September when someone wanted to buy the power tools she’d advertised on Kijiji — a cordless grinder, charger and two batteries.
A man who said his name was Steve said he’d head over after work and would pay $480 by e-transfer, since he didn’t carry a lot of cash.
“It sounded plausible to me,” said Mason. “He was in the trades and I thought, ‘OK, that’s fine.'”
After inspecting the tools, “Steve” opened a banking app on his phone.
Mason entered her email, watched him type in $480 and hit “send.” She then read a confirmation number, indicating the transaction was done.
She’d set up her TD Bank account with autodeposit — a feature designed to protect against the risk of fraudsters intercepting funds, because money is directly deposited into an account, with no additional steps needed, such as answering a security question.
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Autodeposit is advertised as being “fast” and “secure.” Mason added it specifically for the e-transfers she’d get selling items online, so she was confident the money would soon show up.
It never did.
A Go Public test has since found that some e-transfers can be cancelled, even when the recipient has autodeposit, depending on what financial institution the money is sent from.
A software engineer who’s worked in fintech and banking says the Interac system — used for e-transfers in Canada — “is not bulletproof.”
“It’s good for people to know that there’s risk involved,” said Mattias Eyram, who’s studied how money gets transferred from one financial institution to another.
“You’re not really protected until you’ve seen that money settle inside your account [by checking your balance].”
The man who bought these power tools from Mason was able to cancel the e-transfer more than an hour later. (Submitted by Christine Mason )
That’s not how e-transfers are promoted online by the big five banks — Bank of Montreal, CIBC, Royal Bank, Scotiabank and TD.
All of them call e-transfers “safe” and/or “secure,” with no mention of the possibility the sender might stop the transaction even after the transfer appears to have been completed.
After “Steve” drove away with the tools, Mason checked the banking app on her phone, expecting the notification of deposit to show up any minute.
“I was checking constantly,” she said. “It kept me up all night.”
By morning there was still no notification, no money in her account. So she called TD.
She says she was told $480 had indeed been earmarked for her account shortly after 9 p.m., but the transaction was cancelled about 90 minutes later.
The customer service rep also said the sender’s first name was actually Riley, not Steve, but couldn’t say where he banked, for privacy reasons.
Mason says she was repeatedly put on hold and then told to go through the bank’s fraud department. “And then the conversation was cut off.”
How safe are e-transfers? We test them to find out
A woman who was selling some tools has learned that not all e-transfers are final. Despite seeing that the buyer hit send, she later discovered the transaction was cancelled, leaving her out hundreds of dollars. Go Public takes a closer look at how prevalent this problem is.
At her branch, she was told to call a toll-free customer service number and that’s when she learned something surprising.
She says, on the call, a manager told her that e-transfers — even to accounts with autodeposit — can sometimes be cancelled, even up to 24 hours later.
“I was so shocked,” said Mason. “Even when you’re on hold on the phone [with TD] it will say, ‘Consider doing autodeposit because it’s safe’ … that’s what’s so frustrating.”
She says the manager said TD wasn’t the problem — the bank has safety protocols for e-transfers. Once its customers hit “send” to an account that has autodeposit activated, they can’t cancel the transaction.
On the other hand, he said the bank has no control over safety protocols at other financial institutions and some allow customers to cancel e-transfers after they’ve been sent.
“You’re constantly being told … this [autodeposit] is the best way to go,” said Mason. “It’s just false advertising.”
Mason filed a report with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, and says she spent countless sleepless nights, searching websites like Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, to see if the scammer would post the power tools for sale.
“I don’t think people really realize how much effect it has on you. I could not let it go,” she said.
After Go Public contacted TD about Mason’s case, the bank deposited $480 into her account as a “goodwill gesture.”
E-transfer test
Go Public tested how easy it is to cancel e-transfers after they’re sent.
We first asked customers with the big five banks and a few credit unions to e-transfer $5 to an account that required a security question be answered to enable the deposit.
In all cases, senders were able to cancel the e-transfer until the recipient had answered the security question. Such transfers expire after 30 days.
Despite that, every financial institution showed a notification indicating the transaction was completed.
“There’s definitely a mismatch there, of what’s actually happening and the information being displayed,” said Eyram, the engineer and fintech expert. He says financial institutions should not tell customers a transaction has been completed until that’s actually happened.
In the second part of our test, senders e-transferred $5 to accounts that had autodeposit set up.
When the e-transfers came from one of the big banks, senders never had an option to cancel it.
Some credit unions, though, allowed senders to cancel for more than half an hour after the e-transfer was sent — even though the notification the sender received indicated it was completed.
The would-be recipient was not informed of the cancellation.
“That is very tricky and something that should not be happening,” said Eyram.
Mason now believes the man who ripped her off must have sent his e-transfer from a credit union.
“People need to know about that,” she said. “Close friends of mine, they’re shocked.”
Eyram says, generally, the Interac system is fast and efficient, but there’s an uneven playing field.
Fintech expert Mattias Eyram says financial institutions should let customers know that some e-transfers can be cancelled. (Kimberly Ivany/CBC)
E-transfers are “as safe as whatever the sender’s financial institution is and the receiver’s,” he said. “You can’t just trust your own bank, right? You have to trust the sender’s.”
A spokesperson for Interac declined an interview request, but in an email Adrienne Vaughan wrote that the length of time for a transaction to complete is not related to the size of a financial institution, or whether it’s a bank or credit union.
“It is more related to the fraud checks happening by the sending and receiving financial institutions before the transaction is approved,” wrote Vaughan.
“Each bank or credit union makes their own decisions regarding which checks to complete, and therefore how much time might be required.”
Since customers generally have no idea that processing times can vary between financial institutions — and that some e-transfers can be outright cancelled — Eyram says he’d like to see banks and credit unions use more transparent language.
“Show a little warning next to the transaction,” he said. “‘This may take longer than expected’ and ‘Don’t trust that it’s there just yet.'”
Go Public told TD about Mason’s experience, and the fact that she felt misled by advertising that autodeposit is fast and secure.
Spokesperson Ashleigh Murphy said in a statement that the bank is looking into how it can update language around its autodeposit feature “to clarify all nuances for our customers.”
Mason says she’s still going to sell items online but from now on, people will have to pay cash — other than close friends and family, she says she’s done accepting e-transfers.
“Absolutely not,” she said. “Because they can pull it back.”
Customers with the big five banks were able to cancel an e-transfer before the recipient answered the security question in a test conducted by Go Public. (CBC)
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
