‘It felt awful’: Montreal senior loses $25,000 after scammer posed as her bank on phone call

A 71-year-old from Montreal's Villeray neighbourhood says she was scammed $25,000 in a phone fraud operation.

When Ida Pala got a call from an RBC agent asking about her big purchase at Holt Renfrew, she was confused.

The 71-year-old Villeray resident says she normally can’t afford to shop at the high-end department store, much less to the tune of $19,000. It was at that moment she suspected she was scammed.

“It felt awful, it felt like a sinking feeling,” she told CTV News.

Pala had been contacted a few days earlier from someone she said was posing as an RBC employee asking about a suspect purchase in Vancouver. It was that call, she says, where she was convinced to cut up her credit and debit card and give it to an Uber driver who would take it to a local branch.

Pala said the agent told her after the postal strike the bank wasn’t using the postal service and this was the best way to ensure her cards were disposed of.

“‘We’re not dealing with Postes Canada very much now,’” she recalls being told. “He goes, ‘Because of all the trouble we’ve had, we have a contract with Uber.’”

About 24 hours later, Pala was out $25,000. The bulk of it was spent at Holt Renfrew, the rest charged to her line of credit.

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, most of the 108,000 reports they received in 2024 were regarding identity, service and investment scams. Fake bank investigators cost Canadians $16.4 million last year and in the first three months of 2025 it is already up to $5.9 million.

“They have the ability to manipulate the number on your call display,” said Jeff Horncastle, the centre’s client and communications outreach officer. “If you pick up, the longer you stay on the call, the more at risk you’re putting yourself.”

RBC told CTV News in case of doubt, clients should call the bank directly using the number on the back of their credit or debit card. The bank said added that an RBC representative or employee will never:

• ask you to provide one-time passcodes sent through text messages, emails, or voicemail
• ask you to destroy your debit or credit card and then give it to the bank or a third-party in order to secure your accounts
• ask you to send money to secure your profile or to share the link to an e-transfer deposit
• ask you to download a remote access application
• access your online banking in order to add payees on your behalf
• ask you to participate in an undercover operation to prevent a fraud.

Pala has already contacted her bank and filed a police report, but doesn’t expect to get the money back.

“Seniors need to know: don’t trust anyone,” she said. “If they say it’s the bank, hang up, tell them ‘I’ll call you.’”