North Bay Police Service says two residents lost over $10,000 to online frauds over the month of April.
Officials say the frauds were grant schemes, meaning victims of this scheme generally have their emails hacked, or a scammer creates a mirrored account of their social media to contact their friends list. The scammer will then refer the friends to a person regarding their eligibility for various “grants”.
Police say oftentimes when dealing with a grant scheme, the person contacted is told they need to provide an upfront “processing fee” that can be between $1,500 and $40,000. Once the victim of the fraud sends the money, the scammers will continue to ask for payments as “fees” until the victim realizes they are being defrauded. No grant is ever received.
North Bay Police Service says there have also been reports of cheque cashing scams, online purchases, and people having their identity compromised to open credit card accounts. Those investigations are ongoing.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) says in 2019, there were over 3,200 reports of fraud over social media sites, including dating sites. Those reports involved 2,000 victims reporting a loss of $16.5 million. CAFC officials add that there was a report of 708 grant scams with more than half reported through social media solicitation.
