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Fraud
Recognize It. Report It. Stop It.
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Reported Scams and Fraud
For an up to date list on reported scams and fraud and for more information click here.
| | Believe it or not, there is no typical fraud Victim in Canada, but research finds that fraud victims are likely to be educated, informed, relatively affluent and involved in their community. Your risk of becoming a fraud victim is not linked to your age, race, income or geographic location. Scammers don't care about any of that - they just want your money.
Thousands of Canadians are defrauded each year, click here for the most common scams. Scam artists are up to date and well organized. They use the latest trends and sophisticated techniques:
- Professional marketing materials.
- Well-crafted and researched telephone scripts, which are traded among criminals.
- Putting you at ease with their friendly tone and "generous" offer.
- Having believable answers ready for your tough questions.
- Impersonating legitimate businesses, charities, and causes.
- Expertly using your own emotions against you.
- These are professional criminals. They know what they're doing and, unfortunately for their victims, they do it well.
- The price for a product is much less than the price for the same product on the open market.
- You are offered a large payment or reward in exchange for allowing the use of your financial account - often to deposit cheques or transfer money.
Protect yourself and ask questions. Ask for detailed information that you can check yourself. Ask for time to think about the offer. Ask for valid references and a call-back number. If the caller hesitates to give you this information, they are probably more concerned with getting your money than providing a service.
Don't give out your social insurance number or driver's license number on the phone or Internet.
Don't fall for a prize-winning scam. A call says you won a big lottery prize but you must send money before you can collect it. It's a fraud and you'll lose your money! Hang up and call PhoneBusters, The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501, www.phonebusters.com.
Reported Scams and Fraud
For an up to date list on reported scams and fraud and for more information click here.
Phishing
Phishing attacks use 'spoofed' (look alike) email messages and fraudulent websites designed to fool recipients into divulging personal financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames and passwords, social insurance numbers, etc. By hijacking the trusted brands of well-known financial institutions, online retailers and credit card companies, phishers are able to convince up to 5% of recipients to respond to them.
What should internet users do about phishing schemes?
Internet users should follow 3 simple rules when they see email messages or websites that may be part of a phishing scheme: Stop, Look and Call.
1. Stop. Phishers typically include upsetting or exciting (but false) statements in their email messages with one purpose in mind. They want people to react immediately to that false information, by clicking on the link and inputting the requested data before taking the time to think through what they are doing. Internet users however, need to resist that impulse to click immediately. No matter how upsetting or exciting the statements in the email may be, there is always enough time to check out the information more closely.
2. Look. Internet users should look more closely at the claims made in the email, think about whether those claims make sense, and be highly suspicious if the email asks for numerous items of personal information such as account numbers, usernames, or passwords.
3. Call. If the email or website purports to be from a legitimate company or financial institution, Internet users should call or email that company directly and ask whether the email or website is really from that company. To be sure that they are contacting the real company or institution where they have accounts, credit card account holders can call the toll free customer numbers on the back of their cards, and financial institution customers can call the telephone numbers on their financial statements. Never call the number given in the email to confirm the contents validity as it will lead to the criminals who sent the email and they will verify whatever was said.
Some of the Most Common Scams
Here's a list of some of the most common scams, how the fraudsters hook you, keep you on the line and leave you with a sinking heart and shrunken bank account.
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THE SCAM |
HOOK |
LINE |
SINKER |
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FAKE JOB |
After looking online or getting an unsolicited email, you land a great, work-at-home job for a seemingly reputable company. |
You don't meet your bosses but cheques start arriving from people who supposedly owe them money. You're told to put the cheques in your own account and write new cheques to your boss. Your bank accepts the cheques because they seem legitimate. |
You're left holding the bag when the company cheques you cash come back rejected. |
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BIG BAD
CHEQUE |
Someone contacts you about an item you’re selling online or elsewhere and then “accidentally” sends you too much for it. |
The buyers, whom you never meet, ask you to cash the cheque and send them the change. |
You’re out money because they’re cheque is bad and yours likely isn’t. |
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WEST AFRICAN
WINDFALL |
You get an unsolicited email that offers you a chance to get rich sneaking a crooked politician’s money out of Africa. You’re told you can keep millions. |
Next you’re told it takes bribe money to get it all out. Because it looks illegal, you’re disinclined to discuss the plan with anyone else. |
Any money you send is lost to professional scammers. |
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LONELY
HEARTS |
You meet someone on a dating website and think he or she could be the love of your life. |
After some time the person tells you that in order for him or her to travel to your country and see you, you’ll have to cash his cheques because he can’t do it in his country. Because they are stolen cheques on an unwitting company’s account, they initially clear. |
The unwitting company wises up when it sees money disappearing from its account and tells your bank, and you end up paying. You lose the money you’ve never sent and your “lover” is spending your money buying gifts for someone back home. |
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YOU'RE A
WINNER |
An email comes in that says you hit a massive jackpot in a foreign lottery you never heard of. |
You’re told you must pay taxes or other fees before you get your cash. After subsequent emails explaining the lottery system, you pay the money and wait. |
And wait and wait. Your winnings never come. |
By Dan Arsenault, Crime Reporter
The Chronicle Herald
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