A local woman was robbed of over $10,000 last year and she says she has still not received any reimbursement from her bank, despite following all policies and procedures.
Last year, Chantal Parkinson was at work, which includes helping drug addicted pregnant women, when her cellphone was stolen directly out of her vehicle.
After discovering the theft, Parkinson says she called her service provider and had them disconnect her phone from the network.
“They said it was a brick,” said Parkinson in a phone interview on Friday.
Unbeknownst to her, Parkinson’s phone was still semi-operational, as the individual with her phone was able to gain access to her banking app. Parkinson was a client of RBC at the time, and she says she didn’t think to immediately check her bank account following the theft of her phone.
However, five days after the theft, Parkinson realised her bank account was being drained in increments of $2,000 daily. By the time she noticed, Parkinson says $8,000 was already e-transferred directly to the account of Benson Robert Nitsiza with an additional $2,000 going to a known drug-dealer in the area.
Nitsiza was sentenced last week to 90 days in jail for the theft while the other individual has yet to appear.
“As I was trying to get this stuff sorted with the bank, another $800 went to (Nitsiza),” said Parkinson.
She says an additional $1,000 was also stolen while she dealt with police, but that money was returned by the bank.
However, the other $10,800 has been permanently stolen from Parkinson and she says she has been unable to collect from Nitsiza directly.
“I talked to the Crown (prosecutor) … they can’t make (Nitsiza) pay restitutions because he is a houseless individual who uses drugs,” said Parkinson. “So, he has no way of paying those funds back.”
She says she expected RBC to cover her losses, even saying some RBC employees told her they were shocked to see this happening.
“That’s why you pay your bank fees, you pay your bank fees to protect your money,” said Parkinson. “(Local RBC employees) agreed with me, they said ‘you’ve never made transactions like these before.’”
Following the loss of her money, Parkinson says she struggled immensely to continue managing her daily life.
“Our mortgage bounced, our property taxes bounced, like everything bounced,” said Parkinson. “We had zero dollars.”
She says the problems built up as time went on, including the creation of major hurdles for her children.
“We had significant late fees,” said Parkinson. “I took my one child to gymnastics and they turned her away. They said, ‘she can’t participate because you can’t pay’. It’s been a devasting year.”
Thankfully, Parkinson says her friends and family stepped up to help her during this troubling time.
“There have been times where our family has brought groceries over for us,” said Parkinson.
Even a year later, she says the financial struggles have persisted.
“We’re still playing catch-up, we’re still trying to mitigate some of these things,” said Parkinson.
She says she has asked the bank why she has not received reimbursement, but the answers have been inconclusive. Furthermore, she says whenever she asked what she could have done differently, there has been no answer.
RBC released a statement to the Lethbridge Herald on Monday, saying they have communicated all information to Parkinson.
“We have shared our findings on this matter with Ms. Parkinson, and explained the reasons for our decision, based on a careful review of the relevant facts,” read the statement.
It continued by saying they have not seen any court filings on the case and that they await Parkinson’s next move if she wishes to continue pressing the matter.
“RBC does not have details on the outcome of any court proceeding commenced in this matter. If Ms. Parkinson has obtained details in that process that she believes would be relevant to her concerns with RBC, we would encourage her to contact us directly to discuss this further,” read the statement.
RBC also says they understand the struggles faced by victims of crime and review all cases individually.
“We realize that any time a client is impacted by fraud or scams, it can be a difficult and stressful situation for them. We remind clients of the importance of protecting their banking passwords and provide guidance on how to do that. Clients also have a responsibility to take all other reasonable precautions to maintain the security of their account to prevent the possibility of fraudulent transactions. Clients should immediately contact us if they become aware of any unauthorized transactions. We review client complaints regarding unauthorized transactions on a case-by-case basis. In all instances, we work with the client throughout the process and keep them informed, as we did in this case,” read the statement.
However, Parkinson says her password was protected and even followed all RBC guidelines.
“I did not share my password with anyone, it was not a password that was related to anything,” said Parkinson. “It was the typical numbers, symbols, all of that.”
She says despite her security precautions, Nitsiza was still able to access her account.
“I’ve gone through all the steps with RBC and RBC is saying that because there is no way somebody could’ve gotten into my account, without me telling them the password, that they are not liable,” said Parkinson.
Following her frustration, Parkinson says she has switched banking institutions.
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