Sandra Dunham
“My long-lost relative in the UK has left me $13 million” I tell my partner. “I should give them my credit card…right?” We both laugh hysterically and wonder “Who falls for this stuff?” And yet we know that if scammers persist, it must be because it occasionally works. Knowing this, I frequently mention scams when I’m speaking with my elderly relatives. And I thought I had done a great job until one of them told me that she had been scammed for about $3,000.
“How did this happen?” I asked. I was informed that a caller said she had won a car and some money and just needed $17 to transfer the ownership of the car. After she fell for this, there were additional, small, but growing requests for additional fees. After a week and about $3,000 she realized what had happened and stopped answering the calls. The bank let her know that there was nothing they could do to recover the funds.
I’m sure the loss of $3,000 was painful, but what is worse is the shame in having fallen for the scam.
My relative was not alone in falling for this. According to the Toronto Star, at least 6 cities and two first Nations have been scammed, for a total loss of more than $10 million. The RCMP reports that over $530 million in fraud was reported in 2022, 40 percent more than in 2021.
Competition Bureau Canada publishes a list of common scams and deceptive marketing practices and how to avoid them, including 50 different items including cybercurrency investment fraud, pyramid schemes, iTunes gift card payments, free trial offers and companies offering access to government grants and loans.
Consumer Protection Ontario provides information about how to prevent being scammed and what to do if you suspect you have been scammed. Their first advice: Before offering anything, contact the organization through their normal channels if you have legitimacy concerns about requests for personal or financial information.
If you think that you cannot be scammed, please think again. It is likely that your personal information has been hacked at some point in time. Scammers use this personal information to establish authenticity and appeal to your strongest emotions (fear, anger, and greed) to shut down higher-level thinking. If you believe you are too smart, or too well-informed, to be scammed, you may be over-confident and therefore less careful.
Scams are real. While, like me, you may joke about Revenue Canada’s threatening calls, or emails from fake legal firms promising a huge inheritance from a long lost relative, scams are constantly evolving. Most email programs successfully divert scam emails from our inbox. Currently we are much more at risk from text messages through SMS or What’s App, or from scam Google ads.
If you suspect that you have been scammed:
- Stop communicating with the scammer.
- Update your accounts.
- Report the scam.
Great article, Sandra! It is also stressful and dismaying to be attacked daily by people trying to steal your money. They come at you through your email and telephones, distracting you from the important transactions and communications in your life. I slam down the phone angrily as soon as I hear, “And how are you today, sir?”