It seems the more people learn about the scammers out there, the more those scammers also learn and become more sophisticated. Fortunately, there are some common tips that should keep most people safe from a scam.
According to Sgt. Brian Trainor, a retired police detective and community education consultant based out of Saskatoon, fraudsters can come from anywhere, They can call you on the phone, get to you through your email, and even find you through your trash.
“These guys are professionals. The longer you stay on the phone, or if you converse with them on the Internet, you’re more likely to get scammed,” said Trainor. “They’re very good at finding your buttons to push. These guys can pick you apart in seconds.”
To combat these scammers, the RCMP have entire sections online dedicated to giving out information and raising awareness about scams and frauds. They have one for identity theft and identity fraud, payment card fraud, email fraud and phishing, mass marketing, Internet-related fraud, investment and securities fraud, and counterfeit fraud. The government also has its own section called the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), which details scam types, warnings, frequently asked questions, testimonials, etc.
A few months ago, the CBC documented the top scams of 2014. One is a love scam that includes an imposter, a social dating site, and a poor person seeking love who’s willing to part with his or her money or personal information.
Despite that phony love connection scam, there is one other that truly shows the heartlessness of a person. This is the affinity fraud. It requires a scammer to burrow him or herself in amongst people posing as a friend or even a family member. They lie to gain people’s trust just so they can steal their money from them.
According to Trainor, this type of scam can most frequently be seen when it comes to power of attorney. Power of attorney is giving someone else control over your assets when you are unable to. It might not always be a deliberately conniving plot, but the abuse can cause the same results.
“Power of attorney abuse can cause big, big problems. Now you’re talking about family’s involvement. People don’t want to rat out their kids, but they just want the abuse to stop,” said Trainor. “The big thing with power of attorney abuse is that people get away with it because there’s no accountability.”
The reason for this is simple: if someone has power of attorney, the assumption is that absolute trust is placed in that individual. Unfortunately, Trainor says that many times it’s parents who hand that power over to an adult offspring who then squeezes them for all they’ve got. They don’t have to show anyone anything, so they’re usually able to get away with it.
Fortunately, Trainor has many bits of advice to avoid not only this issue, but many other scams as well.
“Watch over your elderly parents. With power of attorney, name two people or two siblings. Never do joint bank accounts or property with power of attorney,” he said. “Remember that the power of attorney is your agreement, so you can make it the way you want. The best thing is to go through a lawyer.”
As for the phone scams, Trainor says the cheapest insurance anyone can get is call display. If the number is unknown, don’t answer it and let it go to voicemail. He said it’s better that way because people have a hard time hanging up.
“You know why? Because we’re Canadians. We’re polite. We don’t know how to hang up the phone,” he said. “It’s not against the law to hang up the phone. You won’t get arrested by the phone police.”
Also, if someone asks to have money wired to them, don’t do it. That’s usually a red flag because money can be wired to anywhere in the world as long as there is a Western Union shop.
This includes damage deposits for people moving to a different location such as a university town. Parents might be looking for a place for their son or daughter to stay while going to school and might be searching online. A scammer will find a place, take pictures, and put it up online under his own name. Once a parent sends the damage deposit, that scammer is long gone before the parents even realized they’ve been robbed.
So it’s always best to err on the side of safety. Trainor says to purchase a shredder because although it may seem impossible, people will dig through garbage to get personal information.
“Nowadays, they’re looking for you in your garbage can,” he said. “Preapproved credit card limits. Those things are already filled in so all they have to do is sign it, change the address, and then that scammer has a credit card in your name for a month.”
If the worst happens and a scammer is able to get a hold of your information, Trainor said report it to the police. Not for the sake of getting your money back (chances are you should start saying goodbye to it), but because the credit card company will ask if you’ve filed a police report.
“I wouldn’t toss anything that can identify me or anything with my name on it,” said Trainor. “I take a razor and take my name out and then shred it, because it’s exploding. Identity theft is just huge.”
