WS just told me fraudulent Saudi Arabian currency charge on my VISA is legitimate and denied my dispute
EDIT FOR UPDATE: Within two hours of this post going live, the dispute has been appealed successfully in my favour and the charge on the card has been reversed.
Long story short. Feb 2026 I attempted to make a $65CAD purchase on what I thought was a legitimate website (what I thought was the Yoto Player website, for any parents here haha). Instead, 10K Saudi Arabian riyals (about $3600 CAD) was charged to my WS Visa. I immediately locked the card and reached out to support who issued new card and sent me the dispute form which I filled out in detail. I was promised a temporary placeholder money to cover the fraudulent charge but it never came, and I ended up paying the full amount to avoid interest. By April I still hadn't heard anything, so I reached out again. Finally, the amount was credited to my card with promises to investigate. Today, July 3, I just received an email that the dispute was not resolved in my favour, that the charge was "valid and processed correctly." You're telling me 10K charge from the middle east is valid when I was sitting at home in snowy Ontario?? Even better, the charge has now returned to my card, so my balance jumped by almost $4KCAD overnight.
Of course I immediately reached out again to appeal but I guess I just wanted to share this to... I don't know. Warn people? Get commiseration? I've had several instances of my Scotiabank Visa being compromised or having a fradulent charge and I have never had to deal with a process like this. I've been a WS client for years, since I had less than $10K to my name, am now Premium member, and have trusted and recommended them the entire time. But this is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
Thoughts? Recommendations? Thanks for reading.