{"id":75076,"date":"2020-03-02T17:41:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T17:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interac1.wpengine.com\/content\/%content-category%\/infographic-see-the-fraud-prevention-map-of-canada\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T14:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T18:30:12","slug":"infographic-see-the-fraud-prevention-map-of-canada","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/www.interac.ca\/en\/content\/life\/infographic-see-the-fraud-prevention-map-of-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Infographic: A Look at the Digital Fraud Prevention Map of Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Living digitally is the New Normal: We\u2019re spending more time working, shopping and communicating online. And as we shift more of our lives to the digital realm, we become increasingly susceptible to digital fraud and phishing scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Online fraud such as phishing and email scams touch Canadians from coast to coast,<\/a> and affects people of all ages and walks of life. In fact, nearly half of adults (48 per cent) report that they\u2019ve fallen victim to fraud, or they have a family member who has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the hopes of arming Canadians with knowledge to recognize and avoid digital fraud attempts they may encounter; we\u2019re sharing this Fraud Map of Canada. All of the scams mentioned below recently affected someone somewhere in Canada (we\u2019ve removed names and identifying details).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet the real takeaway lesson here is that online fraud can happen to anyone, anywhere. Canadians are being targeted non-stop through a wide range of channels. It\u2019s easy to get taken in if you don\u2019t know how the fraudsters operate. So, it\u2019s best for everyone to know what to look out for and be proactive about protecting your data with digital self-care<\/a>. Here, then, are eight scams that might be tried on you, in no particular order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    \n
  1. When a fraudster poses as a romantic interest \u2014 either in real life or online \u2014 it\u2019s called a \u201cromance scam<\/strong>.\u201d You may begin to suspect one is afoot when your new(ish) love interest asks for money for travel or to deal with an emergency. Eventually they disappear, and never repay any money owed. Online dating has only made it easier for scammers to find targets \u2014 which is how an Oshawa, Ontario, widower got targeted and defrauded recently.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    How to protect yourself: <\/em><\/strong>Be very careful about lending money to anyone you haven\u2019t known very long, even if you\u2019ve become close.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      \n
    1. In a gift card scam<\/strong>, fraudsters steal a gift card, put an old one in its packaging, and then wait until it\u2019s sold. Once the card packaging is scanned, the genuine card becomes active \u2014 the buyer is holding a decoy while the thief already has the one that actually works.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      How to protect yourself: <\/em><\/strong>Police in Winnipeg, Manitoba \u2014 where the scam is active \u2014 advise consumers to look very closely at any gift cards they might buy, and avoid any that may have been tampered with. If you buy a gift card and it doesn\u2019t work, report it to the merchant who sold it to you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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        \n
      1. In a ren<\/strong>tal scam<\/strong>, someone poses as a landlord and says they\u2019re out of the country. (Or the scammer poses as an intermediary for an absent landlord.) Either way, they demand an apartment-seeker pay a deposit on an attractive-looking rental, often through a money transfer. The would-be tenant discovers there isn\u2019t actually a rental \u2014 and the deposit is gone. A man in St. John\u2019s, Newfoundland and Labrador, was charged with collecting deposits from numerous people, whom he had allegedly deceived by using official-looking rental agreements.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        How to protect yourself: <\/em><\/strong>Avoid \u201clandlords\u201d who don\u2019t want to meet in person. Never give cash for a security deposit.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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          \n
        1. In a typical instance of a fraudulent vehicle sale<\/strong>, a seller may request a deposit for a car that\u2019s listed for online sale. When a would-be buyer gets in touch, the seller requests a deposit to hold the vehicle. Once the money has been sent, it turns out there\u2019s no car and the seller vanishes \u2014 along with the deposit. In a variation on this scam, an allegedly fake company claimed to be located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and pretended to list used cars on the sellers\u2019 behalf. It collected information from would-be sellers that could be used for identity theft.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          How to protect yourself: <\/em><\/strong>Be wary of sellers who won\u2019t meet in person, and sellers who request deposits or sensitive personal information before a transaction.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            \n
          1. A lottery scam <\/strong>is an old trick that\u2019s still finding new victims. The target is informed of a \u201clottery win\u201d that can only be claimed after paying an advance fee and\/or handing over sensitive information. RCMP in Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, for example, recently warned that residents were receiving calls to tell them they had won a charity lottery \u2014 and these \u201cwinners\u201d were asked to send money to claim their prizes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

            How to protect yourself: <\/em><\/strong>Bear in mind that a real lottery will never ask for money up front, nor personal information over the phone. Always protect your data and be at your most cautious when being asked for an up-front fee for <\/em>anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
              \n
            1. In an email account hack<\/strong>, fraudsters gain access to email accounts, and then wait to intercept sensitive information and transactions. Small-business owners should beware of email scams, too: The RCMP alleged that a woman in Kelowna, British Columbia, defrauded a company that she did some work for by gaining access to the email account and intercepting money transfers from customers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

              How to protect yourself: <\/em><\/strong>Use hard-to-guess passwords for your money transfers, or sign up for <\/a><\/em>Interac<\/a> e-Transfer Autodeposit<\/a>,which bypasses the need for passwords altogether. Never give out your email passwords to anyone, and change them regularly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
                \n
              1. A phone phishing scam <\/strong>involves an attempt to trick a target into giving up sensitive information or money, scammers phone and pretend to be from a financial institution or government agency \u2014 for example, the Canada Revenue Agency. In one sophisticated version of the phishing scam, fraudsters pretending to be from the Quebec justice ministry prompted targets to enter their Social Insurance Numbers using their keypads.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                How to protect yourself: <\/em><\/strong>Always remember that if you didn\u2019t place the call, you don\u2019t know for sure who you\u2019re talking to. Under these circumstances, never give out sensitive information, including your name, birthdate or SIN.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
                  \n
                1. Those \u201cwork from home\u201d ads are often just a front. After responding to a job-posting ad scam<\/strong>, a target will typically be asked to send money in advance for training and work supplies \u2014 which will never be reimbursed, because the \u201cjob\u201d is fake. In one year alone, Edmontonians lost more than $240,000 after falling victim to online employment scams.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                  How to protect yourself: <\/em><\/strong>Beware of jobs that seem too easy to get, especially when involving \u201cinterviews\u201d by phone, email or messaging apps. And as always, be wary of up-front fees.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Learn more about the cyber security benefits of Interac<\/em> e-Transfer Autodeposit and how to set it up.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  \n
                  \n \n
                  \n \n Click here<\/a>\n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                  Living digitally is the New Normal: We\u2019re spending more time working, shopping and communicating online. And as we shift more of our lives to the digital realm, we become increasingly susceptible to digital fraud and phishing scams. Online fraud such as phishing and email scams touch Canadians from coast to coast, and affects people of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83666,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"content-tags":[945],"content-category":[192],"spokespeople":[],"in_the_know_post_format":[169],"class_list":["post-75076","content","type-content","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","content-tags-fraud-security","content-category-life","in_the_know_post_format-article"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Digital Fraud Prevention Map to Help Canadians Avoid Scams<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Digital fraud affects Canadians across the country. 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