Banks deny compensation when hackers steal customers’ money

Sunjit Lidhar was awoken by a phone call from Scotiabank last February, informing him that $3,000 had been transferred out of his savings account and was gone.

“My heart pretty much dropped to my stomach,” Lidhar told Go Public from his home in Surrey, B.C. “We just assume our money’s safe.”

Soon after, the cybercriminals stole another $2,000. But worst of all, Scotiabank refused to reimburse him.

“It is not acceptable to have your money stolen from your account and the bank — which you trust so much with your life savings — tells you they can’t do much to help.”

Lidhar is the victim of a “systemic problem” of criminals breaking into people’s online accounts and stealing money, according to Christopher Parsons, a senior public policy researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.