With March being Fraud Prevention Month, the OPP is taking part in a national initiative to raise the awareness about cons and scams that are taking so much money from people and to help promote fraud prevention.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says over 67,000 victims lost $380 million dollars to fraud last year.
Online investment fraud was$153 million of that. This increased 394% over the $33 million lost 2 years ago.
The OPP offer some tips on spotting and preventing scammers:
- Tack-savvy scammers use technology to create very convincing schemes designed to trick you into sending them money
- Con artists will typically use the name of an established company or government agency to gain your trust, so that you will send money or give personal information to them
- Your best defence is to verify any unsolicited contact. Unsolicited means that you didn’t ask for it.
- Don’t respond to phone numbers or web links provided by con artists. Look up contact information for the actual business, branch of government to verify who you are dealing with
- The OPP ask you to Recognize, Reject, and Report Fraud
