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Fraud is one industry that’s growing fast and police are having a hard time keeping up.
E-mail and telephone scams seem to be on the rise with Canadians being bilked out of more than $2 million in the first two months of this year.
Police agencies are fielding up to 1,000 e-mail complaints a day, says a member of the Canadian Antit-fraud Call Centre.
“Fraud is one of those crimes where there’s a lot of money to be made, and while we do have successes (in shutting down websites), there are always other people out there who are willing to take the chance if it means they’ll make money,” said Det.- Const. John Schultz of the OPP.
“It’s a growing industry and with computers becoming more and more an everyday part of life, it will continue.”
This week Grey County OPP Const. Steve Starr issued a warning to area residents about a current e-mail scam in the area that tells recipients they have a tax refund they haven’t collected. It provides a link that when clicked on takes the user to a fraudulent Canada Revenue Agency look-alike site and asks for details such as credit card numbers, personal identification numbers, social insurance numbers and even a mother’s maiden name.
“Because this e-mail is out now, at tax time, it adds a sense of legitimacy and people assume that if it’s from the government of Canada it’s legitimate,” said Starr.
“We are able to stay ahead of this somewhat through education. As the public becomes more educated about these types of scams, they’ll be less susceptible to them.”
March is fraud prevention month and according to police the most common type of mass-market fraud is counterfeit or altered financial documents like cheques, bank drafts and money orders.
The Canadian Anti-fraud Call Centre (formerly Phone Busters) estimates there are between 500 to 1,000 criminal telemarketing “boiler rooms” operating in Canada and grossing about $1 billion a year.
Those numbers are expected to rise this year, according to fraud experts who say its due, in part, to the worldwide recession…
