toronto scam

Toronto woman warns others of new scam using children to steal bank card info

TikTok has been serving as a great platform for residents of Toronto to warn one another about all sorts of news, including scams that they or someone they know has been a victim of.

After one woman took to the social media outlet to alert the public of a potential trafficking scam that she experienced near the Harbourfront earlier this month, another is now notifying others of a different type of fraud in which "a little girl" is used to convince people to hand over their bank cards.

"There's a new scam happening in Toronto right now and I wanted to come on here and talk about it because my friend got burned by it," the citizen starts, going on to explain how her friend ended up getting swindled after being asked to help a child pay for a pizza.

The younger girl, who approached the individual's car in the Yonge and Eglinton neighbourhood with a $20 bill, said that she had ordered a pizza from a delivery person that would not accept cash.

She then asked if she could give the woman the $20 in exchange for the use of her card to pay for the food.

"For most people, red flags would go off, but my friend is literally the nicest human on earth, so she saw a little girl that needed help and was like, 'okay, sure,'" the poster of the now widely-shared video says.

@teaghanmarie ⚠️PLEASE SHARE AND STAY SAFE⚠️ #toronto #torontolife #torontotiktok #torontoscam #dominoes #dominoespizza #fraud #scamalert ♬ original sound - teaghanmarie

When she followed the girl, the friend was led to a Domino's branded car and prompted to pay with her debit card. It was only hours later that she realized the driver had stolen her card with some sneaky sleight of hand, returning a similar-looking, but completely different card.

Her bank was then drained as the perpetrators deposited a faulty cheque that would later bounce, and withdrew the maximum allowable amount from the account, which in this case was $2,500 per day.

"If she had a higher limit, she could have been even more burned," the TikToker says, adding that her friend is still dealing with her bank's fraud department days after the incident.

"So just keep in mind, this happened in Toronto... if a little girl or someone comes up to you... just be very wary and don't do what she did."

The situation is very similar to a common taxi scam in the region, in which an offender approaches a stranger saying the same thing, that a cab won't accept their cash payment.

A 14-year-old was arrested in connection with one of these schemes just recently, showing how minors can and are often used as bait to make people feel more inclined to fall for the trick.

Lead photo by

@teaghanmarie


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