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A London woman was the target of an email phishing scam while trying to sell a wedding dress online. Now, she’s sharing her experience in hopes others will be more cautious with their information online.
“They could have potentially taken my savings,” Meredith Armstrong said, who lost hundreds of dollars to the scammers. “All my accounts were there, they could have charged anything that they wanted.”
Meredith Armstrong had been trying to sell an old wedding dress on Marketplace, she said, when someone online suggested a clothing app called Poshmark, a US-based social commerce marketplace that expanded to Canada in 2019.
She was “over the moon,” she said, after she received an email on Saturday, November 22 telling her the dress had sold.
It showed the buyer’s name and address and redirected her to enter her banking information and receive the payment. She unwittingly fell into the scammer’s trap at that point, and money started leaving her bank account.
“Since I hadn’t input any of that on Poshmark, I was assuming that this was all proper. They had my email, they had my advertisement, everything was spot on,” she said.
As it was her first time using the app, the phishing email didn’t trigger any alarm bells, Armstrong said.
A sophisticated scam
“I didn’t see anything wrong with it until I entered my banking information and clicked enter and then nothing happened.”
That’s when the panic set in, she said.
The phishing email did not look suspicious, Meredith Armstrong says, as it showed her ad and the buyer’s information. (Submitted by Meredith Armstrong)
Armstrong immediately logged into her bank account and locked her card, she said, but then she received a notification that $199 had been transferred out. Then, $189. Finally, a final transfer of $179, which bounced back into her account.
The scammers only managed to steal $388 before her bank stopped the transfers, but it could have been worse, she said.
On Monday Armstrong went to her bank where she was able to order a new card and report the fraud. At the end of a 30-day period, she will find out whether or not the money will be returned to her account, she said.
Stay educated and be vigilant
Scams like these are on the rise, according to Tarun Dhot, head of fraud management for TD Canada. With over 100,000 reports of fraud resulting in more than $600 million lost in 2024, fraudsters are getting sophisticated at sending convincing emails, payment notifications or text messages that appear to come from trusted platforms, he said.
“Staying well educated and being vigilant is extremely important,” he said.
He said to always check the domain where the email is coming from for any typos, added hyphens, or anything that looks off. A bank will never call and ask for your personal information. If you’re on the phone, hang up and call the actual entity the person claims to be from.
“It’s always okay to take a step back if you’re getting called or if there’s a message that’s coming in with a link,” he said.
Canadian banks have resources to help, he explained, such as the TD Online Fraud Hub. These resources can include practical tips, studies and alerts to the latest scams.
Meredith Armstrong has been trying to sell an old wedding dress on Marketplace, she says, when someone online suggested she try Poshmark, a “social commerce marketplace” app. (Submitted by Meredith Armstrong)
Always be wary, Poshmark says
Poshmark encourages everyone to verify any emails from the company and to only manage payments through their official website or app, said Kelly Groves Seramin, the company’s communications director, and provides articles detailing what to do if someone asks for an offline transaction, how to identify scam calls and messages, and ways to protect your account.
“Because I was a first-time seller on an app that I hadn’t been familiar with, I was taken advantage of,” Armstrong said, adding that she believes scammers look for accounts that have only had one or two items listed.
In the future, she said, she won’t be selling on any app without more research into how the process works.
As for the wedding dress, it’s still on Marketplace, but she’s feeling less eager to sell it. Her experience has made her nervous, she admitted, and she’s unsure if she will trust the next buyer is legitimate.
