🍁My credit card was blocked and I almost got scammed in Canada🍁

Hello.
My role model
is Kawa from the Diffie Helman System Solutions Department.

It's April! I like spring because the environment changes with new people joining.
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 on assignment in Canada will be returning, and other members will be going on assignment soon, so I'm personally looking forward to the personnel changes.

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

News from Toronto 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 for online use.
Furthermore, when I booked a flight to travel while on vacation, I was charged an additional $300 that I hadn't used, and
the Twitter account (now X) I contacted to try and cancel the booking turned out to be a scam 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 was within walking distance of both the train station and the supermarket, and the office was also nearby – very convenient. I expected

to have fun and fulfilling days ahead... but that wasn't the case.

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 inexpensive flight based on the dates and proceeded to purchase it.
After confirming that everything was correct, I submitted my payment information.

But I can't make the purchase.
My VISA card, which has always been with me through thick and thin, won't go through. 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, while casually trying to install an app from the App Store, I encountered a problem where a message saying "Verification required" appeared, preventing the installation.

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the credit card information linked to my Apple accountwas incorrect!

This had never happened before, so I deleted my registered VISA card, entered my MasterCard information, and tapped "Complete," but after a while of spinning circles...


＿人人人人＿
> Rejected <
￣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 the way home, I bought some gummies at Shoppers (a pharmacy-like store). (I recommend Maynards' Sour Patches.)
Huh? I can use my card just fine? Why?

Immediately after purchase, I tried to re-register 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

- Could it be that your account was used fraudulently?
- Was the amount spent too large?
- Could it be that your account was used fraudulently?

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

what do you know...

for the following month, OctoberI've received 11 bills for the same amount

At that moment, the following thought crossed the author's mind:
______________________________________________________
( )
( Oh, I might have accidentally clicked the transaction button when I bought the plane ticket)
(______________________________________________________)
○
.
゜

Is it lukewarm?

This is probably it, definitely this.
So I contacted customer support by email. The time difference with Japan is 13 hours. I want a reply quickly, but all the good kids in Japan are asleep. It's 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

Having no other choice, I replied to the email (politely) and thought I would call them when I was able to wake up early. I
decided to contact the airline and ask them to cancel 10 of the 11 duplicate charges from the transaction.

I happened to be browsing Twitter (now X) and found an official account, so I sent them a direct message, and to

summarize,

Author: "I've been charged $22.60 x 11 times for seat charges during this period, so please cancel 10 of them."
Airline: "We checked, but we don't know anything about it. We only charged you $276 for the airfare and seat charges. Ask your bank."

So,
because of that endless loading and error when I tried to reserve the seat, I ended up running 11 different routes (#･∀･)

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 my second day there, the credit card issue was still lingering in the back of my mind, but I was mostly focused on walking my dog ​​and reuniting with my host mother, so I put emails on the back burner. Then, I
received a direct message on Twitter (now X) from the airline's customer support account (at 3 AM, no less! At first, I thought it was just due to the time difference).

Airline Twitter: "What's the matter?"
Author: "I've been double-charged, please cancel it."
Airline Twitter: "We've checked, but we can't refund you for more than 90 days. You can get it back if you come to our headquarters (in Alberta)."
Author: "What? I have to wait 90 days? And Alberta is out of the question."
Airline Twitter: "Then it's impossible. Anyway, I'm going to call you, so answer it."
(Airline calls incessantly)
Author: "No, no, it's 3 AM here. I can't do that."
(Airline calls incessantly again. Ignore.)

The argument continued like this

At the time, I truly believed I was communicating with the official customer support account, but after receiving a barrage of calls and then, "Please download a money transfer app. If you process the transfer to a Kenyan bank account, we will return it to you in Japanese yen
," I realized something was amiss... and I discovered that I had been pointlessly communicating with a scam account at 3 AM. I was able to stop the communication at that point, and as a result, I escaped unscathed and without any further incident.

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

And to the end

The fun times passed all too quickly, and after returning to Toronto,
I even considered rushing to the Japanese Embassy in Toronto. However, I was reassured by the kind emails from the credit card company, and although I couldn't bring myself to call them right away, their conscientious response eventually led to the removal of the web usage restrictions.
After that, I was able to register my card at the Apple Store, and the Apple Music subscription and additional iCloud storage that had been stalled were restored. Perhaps it's the fate of those who live in the digital world, but it was more than enough to make me feel the weight of flimsy paper money.

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 in fictitious invoices for 1+10 installments that had been billed in October were bounced approximately two months later and disappeared without a trace.

lesson

I thought I'd bring a little more cash