There is a good way to protect yourself from scammers who never lack imagination to do the pass online: know their tricks.
Posted 1:05 am Updated 5:00 am
However, information doesn’t circulate fast enough when a new tactic appears in the landscape. Fraudsters, on the other hand, are very informed, agile and fast. The same evening Quebec announced paying $500 to deal with inflation in the spring of 2022, people began receiving fraudulent text messages about it. “To get Legault’s $500, click here! Ditto during the most recent episode of the ice storm, fake text messages from Hydro-Quebec offering compensation skyrocketed.
To rebalance the powers, a website was launched last fall by the University of Montreal’s Cybercrime Prevention Research Chair that lists scams thanks to public input. This is Fraud-Alerte.ca, your new ally in avoiding a scam that is at best time-consuming, at worst costly and humiliating. After 6 months there are already 4000 experience reports.
A few minutes on Fraud-Alerte.ca is enough to realize that renters are in the crosshairs of scammers these days.
Fake management companies are warning them that their rent must now be sent to a specific address via Interac transfer. Bright ! Especially when the letters are well done, with a quality logo and impeccable font.
Did you receive this type of message via email? Warning, this is most likely a scam. Call your landlord before you change anything or think your last payment hasn’t been received and needs to be rerouted.
Several netizens have sent these letters, the sole purpose of which is to financially defraud the less suspects. Some contain French errors that should raise an alarm, but you still need to be able to spot them.
Another observation that is evident after two minutes on Fraud-Alerte.ca: Many consumers are making online purchases from any site that advertises themselves on Facebook or other platforms. Gone are the not-so-distant days when you had to hesitate entering your credit card number on the internet.
Remember that story I told you about mismatched leggings in Granby1 last year? What about these educational toys being sold by a supposedly Longueuil-based company that used false testimonials from Montreal doctors2? Despite all the warnings, history repeats itself. Unfortunately, Facebook lends credibility to these “merchants” that no one has heard of.
On Fraud-Alerte.ca, netizens report that they have bought a coat, socks, boots… a variety of items that were never delivered or did not match the description at all, on a series of websites with unknown names: Floweroou , Hallowa, Bestoffers-stores, La boutique grande nuit, Luven Fashion, Bloomie and so on.
It’s always the same: great prices, fast and free delivery, tons of happy customers. However, the reality differs from the messages displayed: customer service unavailable, incorrect order tracking numbers, complaints on Facebook are automatically deleted, lark.
The desire to get a good deal, coupled with a certain naivety, always fuels the mills of these sites, which all look the same. And the fact that credit cards usually pay out without a murmur doesn’t make consumers as cautious as they should be, unfortunately.
“These are all sites that work with Shopify. You still have a responsibility when the same person opens four or five merchant sites to sell a single product. They should fly a flag,” says Fyscillia Ream, co-founder of Fraud-Alerte.ca and academic coordinator of the Research Chair in Cybercrime Prevention at the University of Montreal.
Scammers who repeatedly create websites to sell junk frustrate consumers. But not only. A company that offers shared workspaces in Montreal also recently became a victim.
A fraudulent retailer claimed to be headquartered in its offices. “We kept getting calls from people not receiving their packages. We have received hundreds of calls. It was very time-consuming,” says Olivier Berthiaume, co-owner of the Halte 24-7 SME. Angry, scammed customers would do anything to talk to someone, including writing bad comments on Facebook.
If you don’t know a website and their prices seem too good to be true, you have a reflex to “google” their name. For example, if you type Hallowa, you’ll find Fraud-Alerte.ca. It’s a bad sign. This is precisely why this public-fed directory was necessary, according to Fyscilla Ream, since our first instinct when faced with a potential scam is to go to Google.
Despite this tool, “it is quite normal to become a victim of fraud”, points out the expert, who refuses to blame individuals given the crooks’ cunning techniques.
Be careful !
Who protects us?
Parents who had all the money in their child’s RESP stolen in January were compensated by Kaleido (ex-Universitas). But if the educational savings specialist hadn’t done that, would the injured party have taken recourse? If a scammer drains your bank account and the bank holds you accountable for not being careful enough, is there someone you can turn to? The short answer to both questions is no. Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) only reimburses losses incurred in the event of a member financial institution’s failure. The same applies to the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (FCPI) and the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF). The Canadian Anti-Fraud Center is tasked with collecting and providing fraud data. The Financial Services Compensation Fund (FISC) can compensate victims of fraud organized by an insurance, mutual fund or grant plan representative, claims adjuster, financial planner or mortgage broker. The professional must have acted “with the aim of deceiving you” and getting your money, the AMF warns. Additionally, “cases of fault, error, negligence, or omission without intent” are not covered by the $200,000 maximum protection.