Over 10 months, Ralph Moore lost $450,000 to an online investment scam — drawn in, in May 2025, by a deepfake video of Prime Minister Mark Carney, heralding a new government investment platform where people could safely grow their savings.

The 88-year-old did transactions online and made multiple trips to his local TD Bank to arrange transfers, bank drafts and payments to other people's credit cards.

Now, Moore and his family are asking why the bank didn't do more to stop the transactions — and won't reimburse him.

"I don't think they protected me," he told Go Public from his home in Qualicum Beach, B.C.

His daughter Leslie Herrndorf, who lives in another city, says she was incredulous when she learned what happened.

"How could $450,000 be allowed to be given away by a bank who'd been dealing with my dad for decades?" she asked. "They knew this was unusual behaviour." Shortly after discovering the bank fraud, Herrndorf had her father's mental capacity tested. He failed.

Early on, the bank recognized that Moore was falling victim to a scam. It took some steps — questioning several of Moore's transactions and warning him and his wife about scams.

It also alerted its fraud and anti-scam teams and at one point placed temporary restrictions on his account. But Herrndorf wonders why the transactions weren't permanently blocked, her father's account frozen, or why the bank didn't make an effort to reach out to its client's adult children or possibly contact the police.

They are among the more than three dozen victims of bank fraud contacted by Go Public for this story who want to know: why doesn't Ottawa hold banks more liable for fraud, like some other countries do?

"It is outrageous, with the known number of frauds happening, that a bank has decided that this is the level of customer service that's acceptable," said Herrndorf.

Bank fraud is a massive and growing problem, according to the government's Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. It reports people lost more than $700 million to all fraud in 2025 — and estimates only five per cent of victims report when it happens. Banking-specific numbers were not available.

Go Public receives emails almost daily from people who've suffered fraud losses: from e-transfer fraud to the bank impersonator scam to investment scams and credit card fraud.

Go Public TD Bank holds customer responsible for $15K loss, won't say how account hacking ruled out New tuition scam left woman with $37K in fraudulent charges — and no help from bank, police or school RBC and CIBC allow 89-year-old to drain life savings, lose $1.7M to scammers In almost all cases, financial institutions hold their customers accountable – issuing similarly worded denial letters, in which people are accused of sharing passwords and account information or blamed for co-operating with scammers posing as investment experts, bank employees or other authorities.

"These are not negligent people, not stupid people," said Alexandre Plourde, a lawyer and analyst at Option consommateurs, a Montreal consumer advocacy organization that also regularly hears from bank fraud victims.

"I don't think the law does enough to protect consumers." Go Public requested interviews with TD, Royal Bank, the Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank and CIBC after submitting inquiries about various customer losses at all five banks. All declined.

statements from the big five banks In February 2026, after Moore had lost virtually all of his money, TD shut down his account.

In a letter to Herrndorf written July 31, 2026, TD said it decided to "exit the client relationship" to "prevent further financial harm." In a written statement to Go Public, a TD spokesperson did not answer any questions about Moore's case, citing client confidentiality. He said that protecting customers "remains a top priority through robust security, monitoring and education resources" and encouraged victims of fraud and scams to file reports with authorities. 'Zero responsibility' Scotiabank customer Karla Zwicker says hackers stole over $13,000 from her accounts and line of credit last year. The bank said there was no evidence her account was compromised and declined to reimburse her.

"They've got to stop blaming the customers," said Zwicker, of Edmonton. "We need the government to do more." Ivanka Bubic believed she was co-operating with RBC's fraud department last year, when scammers spoofed the bank's phone number and convinced her to withdraw money from her line of credit and approve charges on her credit card.

RBC reimbursed its Montreal customer about $26,000 in credit card charges, but said she was responsible for $15,000 taken from her line of credit. "It's crazy that they have zero responsibility when fraud happens," she said.

Deepak Kadaba of Mississauga, Ont., lost $3,400 to unauthorized withdrawals and debit transactions. BMO said the withdrawals were completed using his banking information, and the bank is therefore not liable. "They're hanging customers out to dry," said Kadaba. "Where are the protections?"

'Big incentive' for Canadian banks Cases like this often have very different outcomes in the U.K.

Since October 2024, the U.K. makes financial institutions shoulder the responsibility for fraud losses, except in cases of extreme negligence.

"The bank must reimburse consumers when they're a victim of fraud … unless the consumer has been grossly negligent," said Plourde, the lawyer. "That's a very high threshold for the banks to prove."

He says Moore's $450,000 loss is "unacceptable" and when customers are clearly being scammed, banks "should have protocols to go deeper, ask more questions." Other jurisdictions, like the E.U. and Australia, have also introduced laws that can force banks to reimburse fraud victims in many cases — though none have gone as far as the U.K.

"Putting more liability on Canadian banks would be a big incentive for banks to develop better security measures," said Plourde.

The Canadian Bankers Association, a trade group, told Go Public that "placing further liability on financial institutions alone will not prevent scams" and could "unintentionally have a negative impact" on bank customers and the economy.

Calls for liability laws Consumer advocates like Plourde, some MPs and the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments have called on Ottawa to make the banks pay for fraud losses for several years.

But when the federal government introduced changes to the Bank Act on March 26, 2026, there was nothing about holding the banks responsible.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne recently told CBC News that he takes bank fraud seriously, and outlined several new measures the government is taking, including working on a national anti-fraud strategy. "We're acting. We're not waiting, we're acting," said Champagne. He did not commit to holding financial institutions accountable for fraud.

Rogers cutting telco customer service jobs amid complaints of long wait times This Calgary woman won a $13K settlement — but says her paralegal kept the money Meanwhile, a new survey released Oct. 13 by Option consommateurs found that Canadians overwhelmingly (87 per cent) believe that banks should reimburse victims of banking fraud, except when the customer has been grossly negligent.

The survey was conducted by Léger earlier this month, and involved just over 1,500 Canadians.

"The survey results show a public consensus on the need to strengthen banks' obligations," said Plourde.

"We're reaching record highs of fraud every year," he added. "It's time to act." Banking on Fear: continues this investigation, seeing first-hand in the U.K. how British banks are now incentivized to stop fraud before it happens. Watch as the team confronts a scammer: Friday, Oct. 23 at 8 p.m. ET on CBC Television (8:30 p.m. NT) or stream anytime on CBC Gem and the official CBC Marketplace YouTube Channel Submit your story ideas Go Public is an investigative news segment on CBC-TV, radio and the web.

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