I'v been scammed!

Hi there,

Just about 30 minutes ago, I received an email from Welathsimple saying that my transfer of $4880 has been completed! I hadn't sent any money at all. So, I checked my account and found out that the money had disappeared. What I found out later is that they sold my crypto assets and transferred it to my cash account then sent it out of the account. They sold and transferred $3300 worth of crypto, plus $1580 that was in my savings account for a total of $4880 to some asshole called "$tom60".

I am usually vigilant, but it still happened. I changed my password immediately and checked my other bank accounts, which seem to be fine. Has anyone been in a situation like this? What did you do? Will Wealthsimple help me recover my money, or is it gone? I am currently on hold waiting for their fraud line agents to answer.

Thank you and beware of scammers!

EDIT: Forgot to mention that a few moments after this happened, WS sent an email saying that my account has been frozen due to suspicious activity.

EDIT 2: I've just spoken with the fraud detection team. They said they'd need to investigate and that they'd call me back within 24 hours. Also to answer some recurring questions in the comments, yes I had 2FA on. So, no idea how they accessed the account, and why they could only sell the crypto and not the other assets from my registered plans.

Edit 3: After speaking with Wealthsimple, I sent reports to the RCMP and VPD (I’m in Vancouver). My glimpse of hope now stems from the fact that the money left my account from my cash account, which has CDIC protection, plus I have the handle of the WS account that received the money.

Edit 4: As some of you have mentioned, CDIC DOES NOT cover this kind of incident. However, Wealthsimple does have some fraud protection policies, so I’m counting on that for reimbursement now. 🤞

WS haven’t called as they said they would, but they sent an email advising they’re working on it and will reach out at a later time if they needed more information from me.

EDIT 5: I’m still waiting for WS to reach out to me. They’ve left me hanging for the past two days. They only sent an email confirming they’d be investigation but nothing since then. I haven’t had a chance to contact them not phone yet. I sent an email reply to their email, though, but no reply as of now.

I do apologize if I can’t directly answer your comments, but thank you for the support. I just want to address some of the recurring questions here: yes, I entered my credentials after clicking on the ad. O know it was stupid, but I had my guard down, and paid dearly. So please be alert at all times, guys. These fucking leeches don’t deserve a dime of our hard earned money.

I can’t find that particular comment anymore, but someone here was like “WeLl If yOu’rE So SaVvY, ThEn HoW CoMe….?!” Or some bullshit like this. Well, this could happen to absolutely ANYONE of us. Are you telling me no professional driver has ever had an accident? Or that no professional musician has ever produced a wrong note? Etc. Yes, I should’ve paid more attention, but shit happens! And unfortunately for most of us, it’s just a question of when not if. This being said, I hope you never get to experience anything like this.

EDIT 6: No word from Wealthsimple yet. So, I gave them a call. The agent apologized for the delay and asked similar questions to what I'd already been asked before. I answered her questions and sent a screenshot of my browser history. For your reference guys, here is the link that I think got me into this ordeal. Notice the "get-reward" part in the link? I think that's not supposed to be there. BEWARE!

browser history showing suspect links

The agent said that she would send the info to their back office and that they will keep me abreast of any developments.

WARNING: Please guys, DO NOT CLICK ON SOCIAL MEDIA ADS. I consider myself to be somewhat tech savvy, and still got played. This probably happened because I clicked on an ad for Wealthsimple Rewards. I knew they had some offers for 2% RRSP transfers, so I thought this was part for the promotion and clicked on it. This is the only activity I could think of that might be linked to this incident.

I’ll keep updating this post as things develop. Wish me luck, guys! 🙏