‘It's gone': Business owner loses nearly $156K in fake bank draft scam

CTV News

21-05-2025

Criminals are using new technology to create fake documents that look like real bank drafts. CTV's Pat Foran reports.
The owner of a spray foam company north of Newmarket, Ont., says they lost over $150,000 from a bank draft scam, despite taking it to the bank and being told it was real.
'I went to the bank to ask what I should be looking for and they gave me the confidence that the bank draft was real,' said Todd Moddejonge, of Sutton West.
Moddejonge reached out to CTV News following a Consumer Alert story earlier this month about the owner of an excavation company who was given a fake bank draft.
Moddejonge said he recently had to sell a spray foam trailer. He put it on Kijiji and a buyer told him he would pay for it with a bank draft.
Before accepting payment, Moddejonge said he checked with his bank.
'They told me to get a certified money order - or a bank draft - which I did, and a receipt with it [stating] where it came from.'
The buyer gave Moddejonge a Scotiabank bank draft for $155,940.
The bank draft was deposited, but four days later Moddejonge was told it was fake and the funds were reversed.
'I brought it to the bank. I had them look at it. They said it was real. They put it in... four days later it's gone.'
In CTV's story earlier this month, an insurance company determined the fake bank draft equated to theft and covered the losses, but Moddejonge said both his bank and insurance company are refusing to cover the $155,940.
He says the investigation is now in the hands of police and that he's also taken his case up with his bank's ombudsman.
'We were going to use that money to pay taxes and do whatever we needed to do and we are in quite a bind,' said Moddejonge. 'The bank doesn't want to help us and the insurance company has denied us.'