October is Cyber Security Awareness Month and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center (CAFC) reminds the public of the most common fraud incidents to watch out for.
"With the ongoing pandemic, Canadians are increasingly relying on the Internet to carry out their daily activities such as buying and selling products or looking for work," the CAFC newsletter reads.
In 2019, the most commonly reported online scams against Canadians are:
Assets: 1,414 reports, 1,052 casualties, $ 1,528,100 loss
Service: 1,366 reports, 1,018 victims, $ 1,461,200 loss
Goods sold per complaint: 1,076 complaints, 793 victims, $ 691,800 loss
Employment: 560 reports, 232 victims, losses of $ 710,000
Counterfeit Products: 309 reports, 281 victims, $ 100,000 in losses
The Anti-Fraud Center estimates that less than five percent of victims of fraud report their incidents to the CAFC.
The commodity fraud occurs when scammers create fake ads on classified ads websites, resale websites, pop-ups, and commercial websites of fake websites. Items for sale can range from electronics and clothing to animals or counterfeit products.
The CAFC warns the public that the price of an article published online is "too good to be true".
These scammers use a variety of tactics, including spoofing messages stating that payments are required and scammers requesting payments through a money services company like MoneyGram or Western Union. They can also include overpayment scams, where a fake buyer pays an overpayment and requests a refund for the overpayment before victims discover that the payment was fraudulent.
The Department of Affecting Fraud Canadians has affected a number of industries, some of the most common fraud services used by the CAFC are Purification Air Identified Channel, Assistance with Government Documents, Immigration Website, Low Interest Deals, Forgiveness, Resale and Technical Support.
Many of these scams are people who offer substandard or risky services, or scammers who offer services to businesses through websites, online advertisements, or phone calls such as immigration or financial services. Cheap price.
In the case of the scams at work that the CAFC types have been reported to include packing cars, counterfeit checks, funds and mysterious buyers.
The counterfeit checks, auto wrapping and mystery shopping scams identified by CAFC ask fraudsters to deposit a counterfeit check into their personal account and then transfer a certain amount of money from that account for special fees to make purchases. for reasons, among other things. .
The Anti-Fraud Center is also making the public aware that more victims are sending money through cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Etherum, and others.
The CAFC has issued a number of tips for Canadians to help protect themselves from these scams:
Beware of heavily reduced prices (e.g. 80%). Know the market value of the products.
Warning text with misspellings or product references, e.g. B. "Article"
Beware of animals that are offered for less than market value or "free".
If possible, meet and buy an animal in person
Find and check the company's contact details (address, phone number, email address) before purchasing
Here you will find customer ratings and reviews from third parties
Be careful where you post your resume. Scammers use legitimate websites to find victims
Take the time to research an employer and verify that they are hiring
Most Common Canada Email Scams
The Anti-Fraud Center also shared a list of the most common email scams that Canadians fall victim to.
"E-mail fraud is one of the most common attack methods for fraud and other cybercrimes," reads the CAFC newsletter. "From fraudulent phishing scams that request personal and financial information to blackmail requests that request payments in bitcoins, the email is used to send a variety of bogus, misleading, deceptive and fraudulent messages."
In 2019, the most common email scams against Canadians are:
Phishing, 2,246 reports, 797 victims
Extortion, 2,126 reports, 34 victims, $ 6,500 loss
Jobs, 770 reports, 282 victims, losses of $ 946,100
Spear Phishing, 564 reports, 329 victims, $ 1,799,600 in losses
Assets, 394 reports, 242 losses, $ 428,600 losses
The phishing scam occurs when a scammer sends an email that appears to be from a reputable company like Netflix or Amazon or a bank claiming the victim needs to update your online account.
There is also a variant of sending a phishing email with minimal text to encourage someone to click on a deceptive link or attachment and infect your computer with a virus or malware.
"The email might look like a recent receipt of purchase, delivery notice, or something more urgent like a court notice," warns the CAFC.
The extortion by fraud occurs when a fraudster exacted from any person or institution to provide money, goods or services.
Ongoing extortion scams identified by the CAFC include bombing, denial of service, explicit video, killers, hostage-taking, hydropower, and ransomware.
There is also sextortion scams when criminals create fake profiles on social media, porn and dating sites. Tax fraud is also something Canadians should look out for when scammers claim that the victim owes money, committed a crime, or had their social security number compromised.
The CAFC has also found Canadians have been victims of extortion fraud, in which the scammers claim to be from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and insist that money must be paid to qualify for deportation, loss of passport or citizenship avoid.
Earlier this year, the Anti-Fraud Center announced that Asian communities in Canada had been the target of robocalls by scammers claiming it was a courier company or law enforcement agency. Foreigners like the Beijing Police and Shanghai Customs.
The fraud Spear-Phishing occurs when fraudsters claim to be legitimate sources from which the victim, a company or an individual has to send money.
"These scams exploit the relationship between the person receiving the email and the person sending it," warns the CAFC. "The sender's address appears to be the actual source email address, which it claims to be, a tactic called spoofing."
Some variations of this scam include corporate executive spoofing, customer spoofing in the financial sector, spoofing at headquarters, spoofing in payroll, and fraud against vendors or contractors.
The CAFC has also listed a number of tips to help Canadians protect themselves from email fraud:
Stay up to date on business related scams and train all employees
Have detailed payment procedures and encourage a review process for unusual email requests.
Avoid opening unsolicited emails or clicking on suspicious links or attachments
Please take a few seconds to hover over an email address or link to confirm that they are correct
Back up your system / data regularly and save the backups on a separate removable medium
Make sure to log out when you're done and, if possible, check the backup (s) from a separate computer using a different operating system
Take the time to research an employer and verify that they are hiring
The most important guideline Canadians should follow to avoid falling victim to fraud, including online and email scams, is to keep track of scams and share what you know to keep others safe.
According to the CAFC, Canadians should tell two other people what they know about fraud and ask them to do the same.
"An unbroken chain of 25 people, two of whom say would cover the entire population of Canada," says the Anti-Fraud Center.
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