{"id":729526,"date":"2026-06-11T10:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T10:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/729526\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T10:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T10:01:16","slug":"it-hurts-retired-b-c-couple-out-17k-after-td-banking-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/729526\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It hurts\u2019: Retired B.C. couple out $17K after TD banking nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"

A B.C. couple who bank with TD says they\u2019re speaking out after someone fraudulently transferred thousands of dollars out of their account. Rene and Cecilia Diguangco say TD concluded the person who transferred the funds had knowledge of the couple\u2019s banking credentials, something the couple vehemently denies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this what we get from trusting this bank?\u201d said Cecilia Diguangco.<\/p>\n

Back in December 2024, Cecilia says she noticed several withdrawals from the couple\u2019s Home Equity Line of Credit Account (HELOC).<\/p>\n

She says they rarely use that account, but between September and October 2024, seven consecutive withdrawals were made totaling $17,000. \u201cBoth of us were shaking and I said, \u2018 What are we going to do?\u201d said Cecilia.<\/p>\n

The retired couple, who have banked with TD for over 30 years, say at no time did they receive an alert from TD about the transactions.<\/p>\n

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\u201cUsually, if someone sends us some money or we send some money to another person, we get notified, but this transaction we didn\u2019t get any single notification,\u201d Rene said.<\/p>\n

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The case was investigated by TD, but the couple says the bank refused to reimburse them, stating the person who completed the transactions had knowledge of their online banking credentials and access to their device and password, all of which was their responsibility.<\/p>\n

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However, Rene and Cecilia Diguangco say they have never shared their banking information with anyone. In fact, the couple says they don\u2019t even know one another\u2019s banking passwords. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t even know my PIN and I don\u2019t know her PIN,\u201d said Rene.<\/p>\n

Despite having their case reviewed by the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, Rene says the conclusion was the same. \u201cThey are pointing at us that it is our fault that we didn\u2019t safeguard our PIN,\u201d said Rene. \u201cI feel deep inside it hurts. You can\u2019t get it out of your head,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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Duff Conacher from the non-profit advocacy group Democracy Watch has been pushing for change in the banking industry.<\/p>\n

He says the federal government isn\u2019t doing enough to protect consumers and wants better consumer protections in place similar to the U.K. and Australia, where the burden of proof is on the banks and not the consumer. \u201cAustralia essentially has the money go back to the customer automatically unless the bank can prove that they did their due diligence to protect the customer,\u201d said Conacher.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Consumer
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Recently, the federal government passed Bill C-15 to help combat consumer financial fraud, but Democracy Watch argues its consumer protections are still weak.<\/p>\n

It wants to see changes to the bill that would immediately require banks to compensate customers for their entire loss unless the bank can prove to the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments that they have adequate safeguards in place to prevent fraudulent account transactions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe banks set up online banking, pushed everybody to use it by shutting down branches and reducing staff and never put in place the protections and safeguards to actually protect their customer\u2019s money,\u201d said Conacher.<\/p>\n

TD told Consumer Matters it couldn\u2019t speak about the Diguangcos case due to privacy.<\/p>\n

TD stated in part:<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally speaking, our reviews consider a variety of factors, including whether disputed transactions were made using a known device or IP address.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cApproach unsolicited investment advice with suspicion and take your time to research sources\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The Diguangcos are now left trying to make up for the thousands of dollars they\u2019ve lost. Cecilia is now working and catering on the side to help ease the financial strain on the family household.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter this, we don\u2019t want to be with TD anymore,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A B.C. couple who bank with TD says they\u2019re speaking out after someone fraudulently transferred thousands of dollars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,1849,172895,55204],"class_list":["post-729526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-consumer","tag-consumer-matters","tag-td-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}