TD makes it right

Photo: Contributed

UPDATE 2:04 p.m.

The owner of Kelowna Cell Repair Sebastiaan Pynappels tells Castanet that since we published his story TD Bank has reversed the transaction and has replaced the $20,000 in his bank account. "They said that this will be reversed sometime today."

We spoke with TD Bank's fraud department who indicated they could not reveal details other than to tell us that the money would be returned to Pynappels account and that they are not calling the mishap fraud. No other explanation was provided other than they indicated that the investigation is continuing.

"They're not saying too much at this point other than they are going to reverse the transaction and they are going to look into it further."

Pynappels says he will no longer be conducting business over the telephone and he praised the TD Bank in Rutland, "if it wasn't for them I would have taken my business elsewhere. But I will be doing business face to face from now on. I just feel too vulnerable doing business over the phone now."

ORIGINAL 5 a.m.

A Kelowna businessman says he is now leery of telephone and online banking after he says he was defrauded of $20,000.

Sebastiaan Pynappels owns Kelowna Cell Repair and was doing his payroll last week when he says things went horribly wrong.

"I needed to increase my e-transfer limit, so I called in. I was on the phone for about 25 minutes before we finally got the issue solved," he says.

Pynappels says about 25 minutes later he accepted an online payment from a customer, that's when he noticed a major discrepancy in one of his accounts.

"There was a transfer of $20,000 out of my account."

He immediately called his bank to determine what had happened.

"I gave the bank all of my information, and then less than an hour later my money is gone. That's too much of a coincidence."

Pynappels says his TD branch in Rutland has been understanding and accommodating, but the TD Bank fraud department is moving slowly. After initially indicating they would have things figured out in two weeks, they are now telling Pynappels it's going to be four weeks. He says that's a long time to be without $20,000.

"What if I was a single mother and that was all the money I had in the world?"

Pynappels has also reported the incident to RCMP, and they have opened a file, but it's cold comfort with no explanation as to how it happened.

Pynappels says he doesn't want to talk to anyone on the phone anymore. "You don't really know who you're talking to. It just doesn't make you feel safe."

TD Bank did tell him that once the money left his account it was then transferred to three different accounts.

Castanet has reached out to TD Bank for comment, but has received no response.