🍁A story about how my credit card was stopped in Canada and I almost got scammed🍁

Hello.
I respect
Kawa from the Diffie Helman System Solutions Department.

It's April. I like spring because new people join and the environment changes.
In 2024, Beyond will welcome 15 new graduates, and I'm excited to see what it will be like.
At the end of this month, the members currently stationed in Canada will be returning, and other members will be sent out, so I'm personally looking forward to the personnel changes.

I myself was on a three-month business trip to an office in Canada until the end of October last year, and I had a very enjoyable time.
(See the blog below for details.)

Toronto News Part 4 🍁 [Delicious Toronto 🍔🍺]

However, the reality is that after spending three months there, it's not all fun and games

During my stay in Toronto, I worked on four blog posts

actually

Both of the two credit cards I brought with me were suspended from online use,
and when I tried to book a flight to go on a trip during my paid leave, I was charged an additional $300 that I hadn't used, and when
I tried to cancel the booking, the Twitter account (now X) I used to inquire was a fraudulent account.

That's what happened

This article is a record of the futile struggle of a man who visited Canada with only 30 Canadian dollars in cash

Prologue

At the end of July 2023, I crossed the ocean alone with a total of 30🍁 dollars in hand

▼ Author

I started going to the Canadian office in August of the same year, and was excited to visit Toronto for the first time in a long time

The company housing is within walking distance of the station and supermarket, and the office is also close by, making it convenient.

It was supposed to be a fun and fulfilling life.

September 2023: Unable to purchase airline tickets

With September 2023 approaching, I was looking for a plane ticket to visit the host family I stayed with during my student days

▼ Host family's dog 🐶

Since I had applied for paid leave in advance, I searched for a relatively cheap flight based on the date and proceeded to purchase.
After confirming there were no errors, I submitted my payment information.

However, I can't make a purchase.
My VISA card, which I've always used with joys and sorrows, won't let me make a purchase. Why?

Since the date was approaching, I had no choice but to complete the purchase using my spare MasterCard..

Card unavailability detected

A few days after purchasing the plane ticket, the moment suddenly and mercilessly arrived

One day, when I was casually trying to install an app from the App Store, I encountered a problem where I was unable to install it because a message " Verification is required " appeared.

found that the credit card information linked to my Apple account was incorrect!

This had never happened before, so I deleted the VISA card I had registered, entered my MasterCard information, and tapped complete, but after a while it just kept going round and round.


＿人人人人＿
＞ Denied ＜
￣Y^Y^Y￣

Hearing the sound of everything I had built up collapsing, I went straight to bed that day

Inquiring with the credit card company and discovering 11 duplicate charges

The next day, I went to work as if nothing had happened, and on my way home, I stopped off at Shoppers (a drugstore-like place) to buy some gummies (Maynards Sour Patches are recommended).
Huh? My card still worked! Why?

After purchasing, I immediately re-registered my card information with the Apple Store, but


＿人人人人＿
＞ Rejected ＜
￣Y^Y^Y￣

It seems that only online payments are being rejected

At that moment, a bad premonition flashed across my hamster-sized brain like a slideshow

- Did you experience fraud?
- Did you spend too much?
- Did you experience fraud?

After returning home, I quickly checked my VISA card usage.

What the...

I was told that I would be billed for the same amount 11 times for the next month, October

At that moment, the thought occurred to me:
____________________________________________________________
( )
(Oh, maybe I did click on a transaction when I bought the plane ticket)
(______ ______ ______________________________________________________________________)
○
.
゜

Is it lukewarm?

This must be it.
So I contacted customer support by email. The time difference between Japan and the US is 13 hours. I wanted a quick response, but by that time all the good kids in Japan were asleep. It was no use.

I was tired after work that day, so I finished what I needed to do and went to bed early

Responses from customer support and the battle with the airline

The next day, around evening time Japan time, I received a reply from customer support

"There was a sudden overseas use, and it was automatically detected as suspected fraudulent use, so web use has been temporarily suspended."

The reply was:

<Huh?

Of course, prices are higher than in Japan and people are using the internet a little more than usual, but that's not the case

I had no choice but to reply to the email (gentlemanly), thinking that I would call
the airline when I got up early, and contact them to ask them to cancel 10 of the 11 transactions that had been duplicated.

happened to be looking at Twitter (now X) and found an official account, so I sent them a DM

Author: "The 11 charges of $22.60 for seat fees for this period were duplicated, so please cancel 10 of them."
Airline: "I checked and I don't know. All we're charging is $276 for the airfare and seat fees. Ask your bank."

So,
because of the infinite loading and errors when reserving seats, I ended up running 11 times (#･∀･)

I suppressed these feelings and emailed the card company again to ask if they could cancel the charge

Then, the day before my trip, I received a direct message on Twitter (now X) from the airline's customer support account

Fighting fraud

On the day of the trip, when I arrived at my host mother's house, I was filled with ecstatic happiness at being reunited with her for the first time in about 10 years

▼ Host family's dog 🐶

On the second day of my stay, the credit card issue was nagging at the back of my mind, but I had put off emails due to my walk around 🐶 and reuniting with my host mother, when I
received a DM on Twitter (now X) from the airline's customer support account (at 3am, at first I thought it might have been because of the time difference).

Airline Twitter: "What's wrong?"
Author: "You've been charged multiple times, please cancel this."
Airline Twitter: "I checked, and they can only refund after 90 days. If you come to their headquarters (in Alberta), we'll refund it."
Author: "What? I have to wait 90 days? And Alberta is out of the question."
Airline Twitter: "Well, that's impossible. I'm calling, so answer."
(Continuous calls from the airline)
Author: "No, no, it's 3am here. It's impossible."
(Continuous calls from the airline. I ignore them.)

The argument continued like this

At the time, I believed I was really communicating with the official customer support account, but after receiving a constant stream of phone calls and then "Please download a cash transfer app. If you process the transfer to a bank account in Kenya
, I will return it to you in Japanese yen," I realized that something was wrong and realized that I had been communicating with a fraudulent account at 3am. The communication was stopped at that point, so in the end, I was able to escape without any damage.

It is often said that a drowning man will clutch at a straw

And to the end

The fun times flew by, and after returning home to Toronto,
I briefly considered rushing to the Japanese Embassy in Toronto. However, I was reassured by the kind emails from my card company. Although I struggled to contact them by phone, their friendly service finally lifted the restrictions on my web usage.
After that, I was able to register my card at the Apple Store, and my previously delayed Apple Music and iCloud storage allowances were restored. Perhaps it's the fate of those living in a digital world, but the weight of the thin paper money was more than enough for me to feel.

During my three-month stay, I was able to get through without any problems thanks to everyone at the Toronto office, and I was able to return home safely. I am extremely grateful to all my colleagues

After returning to Japan, the 2,500 yen that had been left floating as fictitious invoices for 1+10 instalments that had been submitted as October invoices became dishonored about two months later and disappeared.

lesson

I thought I'd bring a little more cash