Scammers are taking advantage of people’s anxiety and fear during a highly stressful time for Canadians.
Between March 6 and May 4, 783 cases of fraud have been reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, said Jeff Thomson, a senior RCMP intelligence analyst at the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, with Canadian fraud victims having lost a total of $1.2 million.
While the total number of fraud cases includes all kinds of scams, including phishing scams and extortion, many have a COVID-19 theme where scammers tell victims that they have been in contact with someone with the virus or they need to click the link to receive their Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) benefits.
Now is the time where fraudsters are going to prey on people’s emotions more heavily, Thomson said.
“You're not thinking straight so to speak and they want to react because of that urgent nature. The anxiety plays into that current situation that we have where people might be more anxious than they would otherwise.”
So what does a person do when receiving a text or email that doesn’t seem right; recognize, reject, and report.
Recognizing the scam can mean noticing that something isn’t right and taking the right steps to look into it before clicking any links or responding to emails. Research the ways that organizations communicate, Thomson said.
If someone received a CERB benefits text message, is that how the Canadian government communicates with its beneficiaries? The Government of Canada website, canada.ca, has the answers to that in their FAQ section.
Did Netflix really not receive that last payment? Anyone can go directly to their Netflix account and have a look at what the months that have been paid and whether they owe any money.
Is that deal on LEGO really too good to be true? Yes, who would practically give away LEGO 80 per cent off? If it is too good to be true, it probably isn’t true, Thomson said.
“Too good to be true is it the saying that you hear quite often in relation to this stuff.”
When making online purchases, also make sure that methods of payment have fraud protection, Thomson said. E-transfers have no protection against fraud so make sure that you are protected with your credit card.
No matter if a person was scammed or not, Thomson said that reporting fraud to the RCMP is still important. Reports of fraud activity can be the missing pieces of open investigations and warns the RCMP about how other people possibly could be victimized, Thomson said.
“It helps us identify what the new trends are, what the new twists are, what the fraudsters are doing right so it's not being reported anywhere we can't warn anybody else.”
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is run by the RCMP in partnership with the Ontario Provincial Police and the Competition Bureau Canada.
For a full list of scams that the centre is keeping an eye on, visit antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/scams-fraudes/index-eng.htm.
