Oshawa Woman’s $3,500 E-Transfer for Mexico Trip Hijacked in Online Scam
It’s a nightmare scenario that many of us never think will happen to us — sending a large amount of money electronically, only to have it intercepted by a hacker and vanish into a stranger’s account. That’s exactly what happened to Tracy Barill, a recently retired woman from Oshawa, Ontario, and it's a wake-up call for anyone who relies on e-transfers.
Tracy was looking forward to a relaxing trip with her husband to Mexico and had arranged to rent a condo through a contact in Saskatchewan. She carefully followed the instructions she was given, double-checking the email address before sending a $3,500 Interac e-Transfer. It all seemed perfectly routine — until it wasn’t.
Despite sending the money to the correct email address, the intended recipient never got it. Instead, the email account on the other end had been compromised. Someone intercepted the transfer and rerouted the funds into their own account. Just like that, $3,500 was gone.
Tracy was stunned. “I did everything right,” she said. “But I used a simple security question, and the person’s email was hacked. I had no idea something like this could even happen.” She later received a call from her bank confirming what had happened: the funds were picked off mid-air, so to speak, by a fraudster.
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What made matters worse was the response. No one — not the banks, not Interac, not even law enforcement — could take responsibility or offer a clear path to recovering the money. “Everybody just keeps telling me it’s not their responsibility and it’s too bad for me,” Tracy told CTV News.
Determined not to let the incident ruin her plans, Tracy ended up paying for the condo a second time and took the trip. But the experience has left her shaken and wary. “I will not be using e-transfers for larger amounts of money going forward,” she said.
Experts warn that e-transfer fraud is growing rapidly in Canada. According to Frances Syms, a cybersecurity expert at Humber Polytechnic, setting up auto-deposit is one of the best ways to prevent this kind of scam. It removes the need for a security question altogether and ensures that the money is automatically and securely deposited into the recipient’s account.
Syms also recommends enabling two-factor authentication and setting up real-time banking alerts. “Auto-deposit helps a lot because if the email is ever compromised, the money will still go straight to the correct bank account,” she said.
Interac responded to the case by reiterating the importance of using secure security questions and never sharing the answer through the same channel as the transfer. They also advised anyone who suspects fraud to immediately contact their financial institution.
This incident with Tracy Barill is more than just an unfortunate mishap — it's a stark reminder that digital convenience always carries risk. If you’re sending large sums of money electronically, take every possible precaution. Because once that money is intercepted, it may be gone for good.
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