02-27-2017, 09:54 PM
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#1
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Scoring Winger
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Calgary's McKnight Hockey Association had nearly $100K stolen in email scam
Quite a blow to one of our local hockey associations:
http://globalnews.ca/news/3273389/wa...in-email-scam/
Quote:
“Our treasurer believed she was answering emails and communicating between myself and the president of the association….asking her to wire some money,” said Srecko Zizakovic, vice president of the McKnight Hockey Association. “So I was quite shocked to hear that I had somehow authorized the release of almost $145,000. I almost had a heart attack on the spot.”
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02-27-2017, 10:10 PM
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#3
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Franchise Player
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Calgary, Alberta
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We had the same scam happen at our business.
The scammers used our email signature and knew who made the banking decisions.
Almost lost 93k.
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02-27-2017, 10:28 PM
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#4
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Franchise Player
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I am sure whomever at McKnight feels horrible about this. I guess the guys that used to send me 10 or so emails a week indicating that I was over my data limit on my shaw account have moved on to a new scam.
One of the news casts had text of the email sent to the Edmonton association and I thought the email had an awkward tone to it.
Always surprises me how these guys can dream up the technology to steal money or your personal info - but they continue to struggle with sentence structure. When was the last time you received a phishing email that looked properly written.
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02-27-2017, 10:29 PM
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#5
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First Line Centre
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Received something similar, very targeted based on the titles found on our public website. Only since the tone of the requester varied slightly did it raise flags to look at the originating e-mail address.
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02-27-2017, 11:00 PM
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#6
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Franchise Player
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Do these people talk to each other at all ?
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02-28-2017, 07:15 AM
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#7
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Powerplay Quarterback
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Republic of Panama
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What surprises me is that there is that much money in the account. Are parents overpaying for their registration? It's almost the end of the season and there is still that much surplus? Who knows how much was left after the heist.
__________________
Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand.
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02-28-2017, 07:41 AM
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#8
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Franchise Player
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Alberta
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did nothing in this woman's head shout to her any warnings?
wiring over $100,000 via e-mail communications?
that's a heck of a lot of money for a hockey association.
would love to know where she wired it to.
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02-28-2017, 07:43 AM
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#9
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That Crazy Guy at the Bus Stop
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Springfield Penitentiary
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What kind of morons set up an account like this and don't make it 2 signatures required to conduct business?
Edit: the article states their account was 2 signatures required but somehow they were able to do this with only the one auth.
I wonder if someone at RBC screwed up big time and is getting fired. Not sure how else you could wire that much money without proper authorization.
Last edited by Cecil Terwilliger; 02-28-2017 at 07:53 AM.
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02-28-2017, 07:53 AM
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#10
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Franchise Player
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Calgary
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While it's reasable think alarm bells should have been ringing for her, keep in mind most of these positions are volunteer run, often by people with more desire to help then hands on experience. Not saying that's the case here - I dont know, but it's been my experience with my kids.
__________________
All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity - Gordie Howe
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02-28-2017, 08:06 AM
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#11
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Franchise Player
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: sector 7G
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It's the association I belong to. I can't imagine how crappy the treasurer feels, but that's exactly what you get when volunteers are involved. Expensive mistake, but I bet it doesn't happen again.
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02-28-2017, 03:54 PM
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#12
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Franchise Player
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GordonBlue
did nothing in this woman's head shout to her any warnings?
wiring over $100,000 via e-mail communications?
that's a heck of a lot of money for a hockey association.
would love to know where she wired it to.
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I can only speak to my association and I believe that at one time we had a much larger reserve than this. The reserve is built up over many years.
I have to admit I am unsure what the correct size of reserve is though, o how exactly it gets built up.
I am going to be interested if all the other associations in calgary chip in and make a donation to mcknight to help rebuild thier reserve.
__________________
If I do not come back avenge my death
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03-01-2017, 01:51 AM
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#13
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First Line Centre
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Field near Field, AB
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Just gonna suggest an additional bank account that is not accessible for reserve funds. Board or group have to transfer in larger amounts outside the normal cashflow budgets.
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03-01-2017, 02:30 AM
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#14
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Powerplay Quarterback
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Calgary, Canada
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In this case it does appear that common sense may not have played into consideration given the size of the wire transfer.
I suspect it was the organizations Treasurer who should have known that most of the expenses paid from the account where usually smaller sums of money and almost always paid by cheque.
The only time I can see a wire payment being sent from a community hockey account would be am international expenses for tournaments or other costs where a cheque from Canada may not be sufficient.
For those wondering how this was allowed to happen when it was "2 to sign", wire payments generally would be generally keyed into the system and then sent off with the expectation that the bank employee performing the wire verified all the account details and that management signed off on it as well.
There is a possibility that the wire was sent from an online banking portal which would negate a "signature" or that there was an error on behalf of the bank which is possible.
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03-01-2017, 03:18 AM
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#15
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Franchise Player
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Calgary, AB
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Northendzone
Always surprises me how these guys can dream up the technology to steal money or your personal info - but they continue to struggle with sentence structure. When was the last time you received a phishing email that looked properly written.
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I've heard that's by design. It's a way to weed out the people who will take one look at it and realize it's a scam. They don't want to waste time dealing with someone who responds to the first message but will eventually figure out it's a scam before sending any money.
By sending an initial message that has many obvious errors, they know that anyone who responds didn't notice those errors and is more likely to be easier to scam.
Also, I believe that with the original "Nigerian Prince" type of scams, the messages were poorly written so that the recipient would feel superior to the scammer. You're less likely to suspect that someone is trying to pull something over on you if you think that you're much smarter than they are.
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Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
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03-01-2017, 06:45 AM
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#16
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Franchise Player
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^ interesting insight into the "art of the deal"
__________________
If I do not come back avenge my death
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03-01-2017, 07:35 AM
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#17
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Franchise Player
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Alberta
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Quote:
Originally Posted by habernac
It's the association I belong to. I can't imagine how crappy the treasurer feels, but that's exactly what you get when volunteers are involved. Expensive mistake, but I bet it doesn't happen again.
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sorry to hear that. hope it doesn't hurt the kids too much.
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03-02-2017, 09:56 AM
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#18
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Franchise Player
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger
What kind of morons set up an account like this and don't make it 2 signatures required to conduct business?
Edit: the article states their account was 2 signatures required but somehow they were able to do this with only the one auth.
I wonder if someone at RBC screwed up big time and is getting fired. Not sure how else you could wire that much money without proper authorization.
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Mistakes happen.
My wife was treasurer for a team last year. The manager and herself signed papers to make the account require 2 signatures. Despite this, the account was setup incorrectly and they only realized this when the cheques came in and there was only one signing line.
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03-02-2017, 09:59 AM
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#19
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Franchise Player
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Quote:
Originally Posted by curves2000
In this case it does appear that common sense may not have played into consideration given the size of the wire transfer.
I suspect it was the organizations Treasurer who should have known that most of the expenses paid from the account where usually smaller sums of money and almost always paid by cheque.
The only time I can see a wire payment being sent from a community hockey account would be am international expenses for tournaments or other costs where a cheque from Canada may not be sufficient.
For those wondering how this was allowed to happen when it was "2 to sign", wire payments generally would be generally keyed into the system and then sent off with the expectation that the bank employee performing the wire verified all the account details and that management signed off on it as well.
There is a possibility that the wire was sent from an online banking portal which would negate a "signature" or that there was an error on behalf of the bank which is possible.
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With respect to the size of the wire... I can't remember if it was something I read or something I heard when they were talking about this on the Fan, but the association apparently put a bunch of their money in a GIC or some other interest bearing account for most of the season to earn a bit of interest until expenses were due. This, to me, helps explain why the Treasurer might have thought it made sense to be transferring such a large sum.
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03-02-2017, 10:11 AM
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#20
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Franchise Player
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This is a fairly common scam, and happens more often than one would think. The sum that these particular scammers got is a bit higher than usual, but this isn't uncommon.
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