The top five scams in Canada this year range from investment fraud to service scams, according to recent reporting from CTV News.
Investment scams take first place this year. Sue Labine, call centre supervisor for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) told CTV News a collective $70.2 million was lost to this scam.
This may happen when scammers create fake accounts and advise people to invest their money.
Romance scams take second place, with the loss of $42.2 million so far.
“The criminals create fake profiles where they use stolen photos to make the victim believe it is actually them. It could take years for the relationship to develop or sometimes they’ll move quite quickly,” Labine told the news organization.
Spearfishing scams come in third, with the loss of $38 million. This is when scammers send texts and emails pretending to be someone of importance, like the government, to gain personal account information.
Merchandising scams take fourth place. This is when scammers use fake websites to sell goods in order to steal personal information. $5.6 million was lost to merchandising scams this year.
Coming in fifth is service scams. A total of $4.8 million was lost to this. This is when criminals pretend to provide services in hopes of stealing your personal information.
The CAFC has a long list of tips to help Canadians stay safe this holiday season.
Source: CTV News
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