As we enter the last full week of March, the North East Region OPP office has released some startling numbers on fraud.
The office says each year the region fields about 700 fraud-related calls.
It adds the unfortunate part is many of the 700 callers have been conned by fraudsters and lost money.
March is Fraud Awareness Month and the office is telling people to educate themselves about the different types of scams.
It says a good place for that learning to begin is online with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
The centre handles all fraud calls across Canada but believes of all the frauds committed, only about five percent are reported to it.
The top scam in Canada last year was the romance con.
The centre says 1,075 complaints came to the office and people in this scam were defrauded of $22.5 million.
Next on the list was extortion where people lost $10.2 million.
The number of extortion complaints amounted to 23,734.
The third highest dollar loss recorded was wire fraud where people were duped out of $12.5 million.
The centre says 355 complaints came to its attention in this department.
The extortion con is popular this time of year because it’s tax season.
Typically a person gets a call from someone claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency saying you owe money on your taxes.
The victim is threatened with jail time if they fail to pay up.
The fraudster asks for payment either in the form of pre-paid cards or gift cards or through a money service business.
The public should know that if you owe CRA any money, it does not collect this way and does not threaten the individual with a jail term.
With the romance scam, the con artist builds an online relationship with the victim with the goal of getting money from the unsuspecting person.
The fraudster usually claims to be working overseas for a lucrative business.
Finally, after months of online communications, the fraudster claims to want to meet the online companion but can’t afford the travel costs.
Under the scam, the victim ends up sending money to the fraudster only to never see him or her.
Go to www.antifraudcentre.ca for strategies to help you avoid being defrauded.
