Case of stolen identity leaves Sask. family out hundreds of thousands of dollars

A case of stolen identity has cost one Saskatchewan farming family hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Andrew and Laurie Johnson run Johnson Livestock near Peebles, a community about 125 kilometres southeast of Regina.

Andrew Johnson says one of their SaskTel cellphones recently stopped working. At the time, they thought it was just some sort of technical glitch.

SaskTel informed them the line had been ported out to another carrier, Telus. Andrew said the family didn’t make that request.

“We are still unsure how that happened, but I guess anybody can request a transfer of a number to another carrier,” he said on Saskatchewan Afternoon.

The Johnsons had the number transferred back and the phone soon started working again. Everything but the SaskTel email was running properly.

Then on Monday, they received a call from their bank and soon realized this was much more than a glitch. The bank informed them of multiple large transactions.

Andrew said they told the bank they had not made any of those transfers.

“It took several hours before we actually knew the amount that had been taken, but it was everything that was available in the account,” he said. “It was all gone.”

Hundreds of thousands of dollars had been wiped from their account.

Laurie Johnson said they were informed by SaskTel the company doesn’t make it difficult for people to switch carriers. She was shocked by that.

“Obviously somewhere along the line, things have changed regarding security and I guess the biggest concern to us is not only how simple it is but how few people know about it,” she said.

She says the bank blames SaskTel and SaskTel blames Telus.

The Johnsons are hopeful they’ll get their money back, but in the meantime they are warning others.

“Focusing on prevention has helped distract us while we are in this weird waiting period,” she said.

According to Laurie, since they went public about this, SaskTel has been bombarded with calls from clients wanting to beef up their security requirements.