'It's outrageous': Growing number of BMO customers raise concerns with bank's security, investigative processes

Since sharing the stories of four Bank of Montreal customers fighting to get some form of restitution after they had thousands of dollars stolen from their accounts, CTV News Ottawa has been flooded with emails from Canadians who are facing similar situations.

Since sharing the stories of four Bank of Montreal customers fighting to get some form of restitution after they had thousands of dollars stolen from their accounts, CTV News Ottawa has been flooded with emails from Canadians who are facing similar situations.

Some common complaints continue to emerge – a lack of security measures protecting customers' money and concerns with how the bank's fraud department is handling their investigations.

Laurie Johnson is one of dozens of BMO customers searching for answers to no avail. In October, $15,000 was stolen from her mother's bank account. She now has power of attorney and hopes to recoup her mother's lost money.

"The police can't catch them. They can't seem to do anything. They said they would never be able to find them and the bank's not doing anything and these people are just continuing to do this everywhere," she said. "It's happening all over the place and it's just frustrating as heck that these people can do this."

Meanwhile, the threat of falling victim to a cyberattack is growing by the day.

"Cybercriminals don't even have to be computer whizzes anymore," said technology analyst Carmi Levy. "They can just buy the kits, they can buy the data, and they can buy the entire end-to-end process, including the scripts that they should follow when they reach you on the phone. So, what we're seeing now, is almost a commoditization of cybercrime because now we're seeing people getting into the cybercriminal industry without even the skills to do so because they can just buy it as they go along."

How are criminals gaining access to that data? It could be anything from social media use, phishing emails or previous data breaches.