SOUTHERN BRUCE COUNTY – The South Bruce OPP is asking residents to continue watching out for cons and scams after reports that more than $10,000 was lost this past week in southern Bruce County.
The three scams reported to local police last week include:
- a con artist took $8,500 in gift cards from a Kincardine resident using the “Microsoft scam” – a cold-call from someone claiming to be a support technician from Microsoft, stating something is wrong with your computer;
- a Brockton resident lost $1,300 in gift cards after a scammer used the “Mystery Shopper Scam” – a scam that asks someone to pay a fee to be a mystery shopper, or asks you to wire money to the scammer to cover “fees” or “taxes”; and
- using the “Cash Prize Scam” – where a con artist will ask you to provide banking information so they can deposit your “cash prize” to your account, or to pay money to receive your prize – an Arran-Elderslie resident lost $500 in gift cards.
South Bruce OPP say cons and scams are attempted daily through a variety of platforms, such as phone, internet, letter mail or fax. Tech-savvy scammers use technology to create very convincing schemes to trick you into sending them money. They will commonly use the name of a real company to gain your trust so that you will send money or personal information to them.
“The reality is that fraud is a multi-million-dollar enterprise that will only end when the con artists stop making money,” stated South Bruce OPP in a media release.
The South Bruce OPP is asking residents to be “very cautious with anyone asking you to buy gift cards. This is a common tactic that scammers are using. Once you have scratched to reveal the code, and shared the code, your money is gone.”
The South Bruce OPP is offering some tips to help protect you from a con artist:
- if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is;
- remember that you can’t win a contest that you didn’t enter in the first place;
- if you have a concern about your computer, take it to a reputable repair shop for service. Do not provide remote access to a “tech” that calls you out of the blue;
- gift cards are a red flag – if someone contacts you and directs you to buy gift cards, you need to hang up the phone; and
- your best defence is to verify any unsolicited contact; unsolicited means that you didn’t ask for it.
More information on fraud can be found by contacting the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or visiting http://www.antifraudcentre.ca/.
