The owners of a family-run small business in North York are speaking out as they deal with the impact of what they say is blatant financial fraud.
Beyond Marble and Granite, which supplies exotic stones for countertops, surfaces and walls has been in business for nearly 30 years.
“We rely strictly on our customers and money coming in for the jobs we do for them,” said Agostino Sita.
In this digital age, a majority of those payments are sent by customers via Interac e-transfers.
“We were very happy with e-transfers because it was simple, it was direct.“
That is until earlier this month.
“Our transfers were getting redirected to someone else’s account.”
Sita made the discovery on March 13. He was getting emails indicating payments were being made by customers but the money wasn’t showing up in their account. The business is the latest to fall victim to what’s known as interception fraud where perpetrators gain unauthorized access to an individual’s email account without the individual’s knowledge.
Sita says they have no idea how it happened.
“We did not answer any weird calls, we haven’t clicked any strange email links. There was nothing suspicious. We don’t fall for anything like that so it’s very concerning because we don’t know how he got in there.“
The discovery kicked off what Sita says has been a frustrating journey to find answers and get back the money he says was stolen.
Sita says Scotiabank has done little to help.
“They said, ‘well there’s nothing really we can do to help you because we never got the funds.’” Which technically is true. While Beyond Marble and Granite uses Scotiabank, their e-transfer account was redirected to an account holder with PC Financial. That’s where the money as going.
Sita was advised to reach out to each client who paid to ask them to contact their financial institution to try and retrieve the funds. All of those customers did.
“That’s when we discovered the person who received the money has depleted his account, so there’s nothing in there for us to receive,” Sita said.
Speakers Corner reached out to both Scotiabank and PC Financial — neither bank commented.
We also reached out to Interac — the platform that processes e-transfers.
“Upon becoming aware of this issue, Interac immediately deactivated the fraudulently created autodeposit registration,” said Interac spokesperson Farnaz Yaqubian. She went on to say the Interac e‑transfer service remains secure, and these incidents occur outside of their network.
Yaqubian says when the autodeposit feature is enabled, the recipient’s legal name is displayed before the transfer is sent, so senders should first check to confirm they’re sending money to the right person before confirming.
While Beyond Marble and Granite’s Interac autodeposit email was the same, a new name had been attached to the account.
“Our customers might have assumed it was just a new person who was handling it, as we have many people who work here,” Sita said.
Sita says they’re now taking the hit — still providing the products and services their clients paid for — even though they didn’t get the payments.
“Whatever loss we’re taking, we will still get the job done for our clients.”
But for now, he’s lost his trust in accepting e-transfers.
“We wanted to speak out to warn other businesses out there. Don’t assume E-transfers are safe and don’t assume that the bank will have your back if something goes wrong,” he said. “If banks are offering an easier service, they should have the backup to support any flaws that can happen with that service.”
If you have an issue, story or question you’d like us to look into, contact us.
