The battle against fraud is an ongoing affair. In March, it’s brought to the forefront for Fraud Prevention Month.
The campaign looks to bring awareness and support against the crime. Last year, numbers show businesses were most affected by fraud in the country, with total losses just shy of $21-million.
“Maybe you’re in the accounting department at your business and then you get an email that seems like it’s coming from the owner or the president and they’re asking you to transfer funds,” explains Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre Spokesperson Lisanne Roy-Beauchamp.
“The email address being used might be one letter off and those transfers that are being done are actually very large amounts.”
The Anti-Fraud Centre saw over $110-million in reported losses in 2017. That number, however, is likely quite a bit higher. They believe the number of people who fall victim to fraud and report it is less than five percent, especially due to the amount of fraud attempts nowadays.
“Fraudsters are using a lot of technology which means they’re getting a lot more calls out there per day or even per hour,” Roy-Beauchamp says.
“So almost every consumer is getting that voicemail where if they call back they’re being threatened and being told they’re owing money to the government or else they’ll be put in jail.”
So how do you prevent fraud?
“In terms of personal information, don’t just give that out so your date of birth, your drivers licence, your passport, your social insurance number, don’t provide that information to anyone,” Roy-Beauchamp explains.
“It’s not easy to admit that you’ve lost money, sometimes it can be embarrassing for people to report but the more you report, the more our database grows.”