March is Fraud Prevention Month, and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) will be sharing a “Scam of the Day” every weekday for the month of March. We will be sharing these scams, with the hopes of educating the public and preventing a few fraud cases.
2015 Quick Facts on Scams (Stats are for Canada):
- In 2015 there were 18,342 Extortion complaints reported by 1,113 victims
- Romance scams were the hardest hitting for dollar value with $16,889,780.67 lost
- The CAFC receives on average, 50,000 complaints a year
- The CAFC receives on average a reported dollar loss of $81,000,000 each year
- It is believed that fewer than 5% of victims create a report with the CAFC regarding Mass Marketing Fraud.
If you know someone who might be a victim of fraud, helping them with reporting the incident may help them from losing more money. Many victims who are being scammed, especially through the romance scam, will deny that they’re being scammed. Supporting them and helping them rather than making them feel bad can help them tremendously.
If you have been a victim of fraud, please call the CAFC toll free at 1-888-495-8501 or online at http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/reportincident-signalerincident/index-eng.htm and, if you live in Regina, report it to us by coming into the front desk of our Headquarters office, located at 1717 Osler Street. Officers are there for reports from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. every day.
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