Not been on here for ages but I thought I'd make an appearance for my customary moan.

Tell me. Is it just me or is this country full of companies/organisations/individuals looking to rip you off at every opportunity?

My latest discovery is the "non-profit" organisation we signed up with for an RESP for my son.

Now typically, we were very naive - new to the country, unsure of how things work here, etc. - but a woman referred to us by the bleedin' "Welcome Wagon" came and told us that signing up for one of these with her company would ensure our child's future was in safe hands.

I've just managed to get a statement from them.

We've "deposited" somewhere in the region of $2,000.

Currently our "net contributions" are approx. $400. The rest is swallowed up by "fees".

Now we're obviously kicking ourselves over this - should have read the small print, investigated further, etc, etc, but how many people, new to Canada, with a small baby are able to do that?

Add to that the rip off baby photographer (another Welcome Wagon scam - who fortunately we saw coming a mile off and so didn't waste any money with), the energy "marketers" who have suckered us and thousands of other gullible and uninformed consumers into paying way too much for our gas, the rampant trade in bank card skimming (our accounts have been compromised three times in the last two years alone. I don't know anybody who this hasn't happened to here), warranty restrictions, the "buyer beware" culture... I feel like I don't know who to trust any more.

Plus of course, there's Canadian Tire...

Me. Unless I just haven't noticed.

Probably....

Hasn't happened to me yet, but it's only a matter of time I guess.

The current ruse is they get a replica debit/credit terminal that looks genuine and functions genuinely, only it has a bluetooth transmitter inside which skims the cards/pins. They sit outside in the car park with a laptop/phone or something and collect up all the details. Then they trot off home and make up new cards to go use....

Only gets discovered when lots of people start complaining and they put 2 and 2 together and realise that it was a certain establishment.

You'll notice that lots of places are starting to bolt down the debit terminal so that this swapsee can't take place, but there's still lots of places that they don't and they leave the terminal unattended whilst they're out back fiddling..... Easy for the fake terminal to be swapped in.

And welcome back Mr Lee, your moaning has been missed

TBH, things not much different in the UK.

They (the financial institutions) never tell us where the card was compromised either. At least if they did that, you'd be more on your guard in certain places. I have heard gas stations are done a lot.

Don't even mention the incompetence of banks and laywers to me, we are up a incredibly big creek without a paddle and can't actually see a positive way out at the mo'. In the process of liquidating assets........Really not sure what the future holds

The situations described are not Canadian phenomena. Fraudsters used to come to your front door to scam you but now the money is in your debit/credit card so that's where they go to do their dirty work. Debit/credit card skimming is active in the UK and probably everywhere in the world. Canada is no more Scam Central than is the UK, USA, Oz etc, etc, etc and forever.

From my personal experience, I found it was to the contrary. With consumer legislation taking such a hold it has become less and less common in the UK to be ripped off by unscrupulous organisations.

Plus, in 15 years of having a debit and credit card I personally never got my card skimmed. In fact I don't think I even knew anybody who it had happened to. Of course, there were "phishing" emails which some people got caught by (again, nobody I knew), and I'm guessing that is yet to take hold here.

It's more difficult to do this way in the UK since Chip and Pin has been around for 5+ or so years..... But apparently that has now been compromised too

Uh oh does not sound good, what happened?

I have heard of lots of people that have had cards scammed here - they are usually the ones that thank me for asking for photo ID when using the credit card.

I had my credit card # used in the UK but a quick call to the bank got my money returned. It's all just a bloody nightmare:curse:

In well over 40 years of having debit and credit cards in Canada never yet had a problem. Mrs_P had a card replaced a couple of years ago when "Winners" database was compromised. I only know one other person who has had a card replaced by the bank because of skimming and in that case it was the bank who contacted them to tell them. So the system does work.

4 years (yes four) ago we downsized from a monsterously big house to a slightly smaller monsterously big house and we appeared to come out of it with a bit more money than we thought we would. We questioned this excess money (several time with several people including the bank manager and the lawyer that did our house/loan paperwork). No it's all yours have fun with it!

3 Years later OH has lost both parents and has a bit of inheritance, so we 'invest' in a lakeside property with the view of semi retiring in rural Alberta once teen has finished High school and is living her life, initially we were looking at lots but the whole house on the lake we have bought on was cheaper than a lakeview lot, only problem is the bills in the winter.

4 Years on OH's line of work is super slack, the heating bills are scary and we are wondering upon our wisdom and are thinking of renting out lake house to ease the financial burden. Line of credit is frozen, OH queries this, bank vice president calls us in for a meeting, we actually owe them about four times the amount we initially asked about - a scary amount of money actually, can't get my head around it and can't stop the tears - which doesn't actually help anything and gives me a puffy face All the bank can say is this isn't something we are proud of and it's not the way we like to do business But we'll have our money back thanks.

So lake house is going up for sale/rent (we bought somewhere where property takes a hell of a long time to sell and we knew that). We have a realtor coming in to value the house we live in and we are looking at converting some pension money.

All this sort of thing makes you stronger......right?????? Ahhh the canadian dream, we had quite a nice life in the UK - it's easy to blame where your living for your problems though isn't it?

No legal avenues open to you to question this? Especially after you questioned it originally?

I realise a lawyer at the moment is only going to add to the debt but is it possible one could get you out of this or at the very least negotiate a lower amount?

We do have a laywer looking into the situation as another lawyer in her office has had this happen to another of her clients, it's looking bleak though as it's a case of no proof we asked about it. It's just a bit of a mess....Don't think I'll have my Alaskan Cruise for my 40th next year now