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Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mail scams are still targeting Canadians even today – here's what to watch for
As a compliance and anti-fraud professional, Amber D. Scott is no stranger to scams. But even she was surprised to find one waiting in her community mailbox, addressed directly to her. The letter purported to be from Ledger, a maker of cryptocurrency hardware wallets, asking her to scan a QR code to enable a new security feature. If she didn't complete the setup by July 30, the letter says she could lose access to her cryptocurrency. Scott, chairperson of Outlier Compliance Group, says the letter had several hallmarks of legitimacy at first glance. It contained no obvious spelling mistakes, listed devices a recipient might own, included brand logos and provided a signature. It also created a sense of urgency by imposing a deadline, she says. 'There's likely a higher open rate when you get a piece of mail addressed to you,' she added, whereas it's easier to delete an email. The scam Scott encountered is part of a growing trend of increasingly sophisticated fraud targeting Canadians, sometimes even through old-fashioned mail. While many scams have moved online, experts warn that physical letters can appear highly convincing and prey on urgency or fear. Canadians lost over $342 million to fraud in the first six months of 2025, according to Jeff Horncastle, client and communications outreach officer for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC). Roughly $827,000 of that was a result of mail fraud. In 2024, investment fraud — including cryptocurrency scams — was among the top three fraud types reported to the CAFC, accounting for more than $310 million in losses. While cyber-enabled fraud accounts for about 75 per cent of reported losses to the CAFC, the organization has noted an increase in certain types of mail fraud, such as foreign money offers which include inheritance letters. Mail scams continue to deceive Canadians because they look official, Horncastle says. Printed letters often mimic the formatting and logos of those they're impersonating, and they can include real details, including your name and contact information. Fraudsters may also lure victims with promises of rewards or large amounts of money via what appears to be formal communications, he says. Scott says her approach to anything cryptocurrency related is to assume it's a scam, and then try to disprove that hypothesis. She didn't scan the QR code as advised, and suspects it would have led to a fake Ledger site asking her to download information or enter private keys or seed phrases (a crypto wallet recovery passcode) that would give scammers access to cryptocurrency. Or, it might automatically download malware that steals crypto automatically, she says. Horncastle similarly recommends Canadians not to scan QR codes received through unsolicited messages, which include letters in the mail. Always contact the company or agency by finding their official contact information first — outside of what appears in the letter. When doing so, Scott recommends searchers avoid any websites that don't look familiar. 'People can be less critical when they're evaluating Google search results,' she said. To debunk the scam, Scott also searched online for the suggested 'Ledger transaction check' alongside the word 'scam' and quickly found a warning from Ledger itself. The company confirmed it does not send physical letters to customers, suggesting such scams have circulated before. The scams may possibly be related to a previous data breach involving customer names and addresses, Scott says. She recommends others also search for two related terms + 'scam' when receiving suspicious communications. To break the sense of urgency scams create, Scott recommends taking a beat and talking to other people about what has been received — or find other ways to reflect on how to respond. It will decrease a sense of agitation that could spur a quick reaction. 'This is the challenge of our times,' she said. 'Figuring out what's real and true.' If you suspect a scam, report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CTV News
16-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Canadians have already lost $103 million to crypto investment scams this year: Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre
Canadians lost $224,201,739 to cryptocurrency investment in 2024, and so far have lost $103,172,872 in 2025, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. (Pexels / Jakub Zerdzicki) Canadians lost $224,201,739 to cryptocurrency investment in 2024, and so far have lost $103,172,872 this year alone, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Cryptocurrency fraud usually involves fake videos generated with artificial intelligence (AI), that feature prominent politicians or celebrities promoting fake websites. Two Ontarians CTV News spoke with collectively lost $58,600 after falling victim to separate AI-generated videos advertising fraudulent cryptocurrency investments. 'We got stung big time and we don't want it to happen to anyone else,' said Don Perkins of Stittsville, a community in Ottawa. It was in January when Perkins and his wife, Guylaine Perkins, said they saw a video of then Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, appearing to talk about an investment opportunity that could make them rich. According to the AI-manipulated video, Freeland spoke about the 'opportunity' Canadians could invest in, making them rich. crypto fraud A fake, AI-generated video appears to show former Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, talking about a cryptocurrency investment opportunity. 'We bought into it and got swindled by a pair of smooth talking individuals,' Perkins said. The Perkins said they started out investing with just a few hundred dollars, but eventually handed over their life savings of $42,600. It wasn't until they tried to withdraw the funds that they realized they lost all their money. 'When we went to access the money, they wouldn't give it to us and said we would have to give them $10,000,' said Perkins. Brenda Dionne of Whitby also had a similar experience when she saw an AI-generated video of what seemed to be Prime Minister Mark Carney claiming Canadians could make money investing in cryptocurrency. crypto fraud An AI-generated video appears to show Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni discussing investing in cryptocurrency. Dionne told CTV News that after she handed over her banking information, the fraudsters cleaned out her bank account and took her life savings of $16,000. 'I could see her doing it and I said 'I don't want you taking money out of my account,'' said Dionne. 'I could see her doing it. I could see her taking my money.' According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), in 2024, crypto investments represented over 70 per cent of overall reported losses to investment fraud. Most of those frauds involved altered videos that used AI to make it appear as if someone was saying to invest in a platform which was actually completely fake. 'If you open up your search engine and you search up cryptocurrency investments, the first five or ten are more than likely to be fraudulent platforms,' said Jeff Horncastle with the CAFC. The centre says that when watching videos online, it's important to remain skeptical and do your own research. The CAFC also urges Canadians to exercise caution when viewing videos that seem too good to be true, or showing public figures saying something out of character, like investing in different platforms. They said these deepfake videos often rely on sensational or provocative content to manipulate others. The Perkins both have health problems and said they invested in hopes of boosting their retirement savings, but instead lost it all. 'I have a bag in my stomach and go to dialysis three times a week. My wife can hardly walk and needs a wheelchair most of the time,' said Perkins. 'This was a portion of our life savings that we had set aside.' CTV News reached out to Prime Minister Mark Carney's office about the fake, AI-generated videos but did not get a response.
CTV News
28-06-2025
- CTV News
Local OPP detachment and CAFC fight ‘bank investigator' scams
Members of the Southern Georgian Bay OPP detachment are teaming up with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) to warn locals about the rise of 'bank investigator' scams. According to Southern Georgian Bay OPP and the CAFC, 'bank investigator' scams involve fraudsters impersonating financial institutions, law enforcement or credit reporting agencies, claiming that a potential victim's bank account has been compromised. Fraud experts say suspects sometimes show that they know a potential victim's personal information (name, date of birth, social insurance number, debit card number, etc.) to seem legitimate. Suspects are also known to be spoofing financial institutions, law enforcement, and credit reporting agencies or providing fraudulent call-back numbers that impersonate the institutions. Scam Variations Southern Georgian Bay OPP and the CAFC outline three variations of bank investigator scams. The first involves a potential victim receiving an automated phone call claiming to be their financial institution, law enforcement, credit card reporting agency, or, in some cases, Amazon, advising of fraudulent transactions in their account. Suspects are then known to request access to the victim's computer to 'investigate' and then show the falsely 'fraudulent' transactions. Fraud experts say the suspects then request the victim's help to continue 'investigating' the criminals who stole their money, where they will ask the victim to send a large amount of money as part of the 'investigation.' The second variation involves suspects already gaining access to a potential victim's debit card number and password but needing more information to get through multi-factor authentication. Suspects are then known to contact the victim, posing as their financial institution and advising the victim that they must provide a code via text or email to confirm their identity. The code provided by the victim gives suspects full access to their bank account. The third variation involves suspects advising a potential victim that they need their debit or credit card from their residence as part of an 'investigation.' Fraud experts say suspects will then go as far as going to a victim's residence to pick up the card. They may even ask the victim to cut the card in half without damaging the chip to appear more legitimate. Suspects are also known to threaten victims that they may be arrested if they do not comply. Protecting Yourself Southern Georgian Bay OPP and the CAFC say criminals use call-spoofing to mislead victims, and, therefore, unfamiliar phone numbers on call displays should not be assumed to be legitimate. When receiving a call from someone claiming to be a financial institution, fraud experts suggest telling the caller that you will call them back, before ending the call and calling the number on the back of the debit card in question. Fraud experts remind potential victims that credit bureaus will never call customers randomly unless it is a requested call back, and that financial institutions and law enforcement will never make threats over the phone. Multi-factor authentication codes should never be shared, especially in writing via text or email. Suspects are also known to often provide the first four-to-six digits of a debit or credit card to appear legitimate, but most financial institutions use the same four to six numbers for their debit and credit cards. Institutions will also never request for funds to be transferred to an external account for security reasons. Police and fraud experts also suggest never providing remote access to your computer and confirm that law enforcement will never go to a private residence to pick up a bank card. Anyone suspecting of fraud or cybercrime should report it to their local police and to the CAFC.
Vancouver Sun
26-06-2025
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Scammers now impersonating senior government officials and CEOs to swindle Canadians
OTTAWA — If your boss's name appears on your phone, don't assume that's who is calling you. In a rare joint statement issued Monday, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), part of Canada's cyberdefence agency, said that scammers are now using artificial intelligence to impersonate senior government officials by phone or text. Spoofing government officials' phone numbers or voices, they contact other public sector leaders or C-suite business leaders with fake urgent requests for money transfers or asking them to open a malicious link. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The goal is to steal money, sensitive information or install malware on organizations' computer networks, says the CCCS. The scam is yet another way that fraudsters are harnessing AI to impersonate government officials and organizations to make their schemes more believable. In one case, a Canadian individual received a fraudulent message purporting to come from a U.S. government official requesting a 'large transfer of money under the pretence of an urgent government-related matter,' said spokesperson Cyber Centre spokesperson Janny Bender Asselin. Asselin declined to say who the recipient was, if they were a government or business executive or if the money was ever transferred to the scammer. Neither CCCS nor CAFC responded to questions about which government officials or C-suite executives are either being impersonated or targeted by this new malicious cyber scam. But the advisory is clear: if you receive a message or call from someone purporting to be a high-ranking government official or even your employer's CEO demanding you do something urgent and unusual, it could be a scam. Even if the voice sounds like them. The warning says the latest scam appears linked to an ongoing campaign in the U.S. that was flagged by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) last month. The FBI said that since Apri l, scammers have been impersonating 'senior US officials' and contacting other current or former top federal and state American government workers. They then purport to send a link to move the conversation to another messaging app, but the URL actually infects their device with malware. 'The malicious actors have sent text messages and AI-generated voice messages — techniques known as smishing and vishing, respectively — that claim to come from a senior US official in an effort to establish rapport before gaining access to personal accounts,' the FBI warned. 'If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic.' For the head of the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange, Jennifer Quaid, these types of scams have become so prevalent that she now suggests to private sector workers that they shouldn't always believe that it's their boss that's calling when the number appears on their phones. 'Never assume it's your boss,' she told National Post. 'I would give a CEO, a CFO and my 21-year-old daughter exactly the same advice: stop and think about it. Take a minute to think about what the request is, and then say, 'I will call you back' and reach out to that person using another known channel of communication,' she added. 'If your boss is serious about wanting you to transfer $20 million, I don't think they're going to object to your saying, 'I will call you right back'.' Just in the first three months of 2025, the Anti-Fraud Centre says it has received nearly 13,000 reports of fraud generating over $165 million in losses for 9,092 victims. But as always, that is only the tip of the iceberg as the vast majority of victims don't report the crime to authorities. Both the Cyber Centre and Quaid say AI has tremendously boosted criminals' ability to make their scams more believable. But Quaid also believes that threat actors not being constrained by legal AI guardrails has allowed them to harness AI faster and more effectively than businesses trying to defend themselves. 'They're not using it with rules. We have rules, and I want to be very clear, rules are a very good thing,' Quaid said of scammers. 'But they are operating in a criminal environment without rules, without regard to due process and without regard to privacy, and that's why they're able to do more with some of these tools than we are.' In recent weeks, government agencies have increasingly warned Canadians that scammers are spoofing their phone numbers to appear legitimate. Spoofing allows fraudsters display a fake number on a phone's caller ID. Even organizations like the Communications Security Establishment, the country's cyberdefence agency, have not been spared. 'If you receive a suspicious call from our media number, please know it is not a legitimate call,' the agency wrote on social media last week . 'Spoofing lets scammers display a legitimate number, even though they have no connection to the organization. This isn't always impersonation, but it's still misleading and can create confusion.' National Post cnardi@ Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Edmonton Journal
26-06-2025
- Business
- Edmonton Journal
Scammers now impersonating senior government officials and CEOs to swindle Canadians
Article content OTTAWA — If your boss's name appears on your phone, don't assume that's who is calling you. In a rare joint statement issued Monday, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), part of Canada's cyberdefence agency, said that scammers are now using artificial intelligence to impersonate senior government officials by phone or text. Article content Spoofing government officials' phone numbers or voices, they contact other public sector leaders or C-suite business leaders with fake urgent requests for money transfers or asking them to open a malicious link. The goal is to steal money, sensitive information or install malware on organizations' computer networks, says the CCCS. The scam is yet another way that fraudsters are harnessing AI to impersonate government officials and organizations to make their schemes more believable. In one case, a Canadian individual received a fraudulent message purporting to come from a U.S. government official requesting a 'large transfer of money under the pretence of an urgent government-related matter,' said spokesperson Cyber Centre spokesperson Janny Bender Asselin. Asselin declined to say who the recipient was, if they were a government or business executive or if the money was ever transferred to the scammer. Article content Neither CCCS nor CAFC responded to questions about which government officials or C-suite executives are either being impersonated or targeted by this new malicious cyber scam. But the advisory is clear: if you receive a message or call from someone purporting to be a high-ranking government official or even your employer's CEO demanding you do something urgent and unusual, it could be a scam. Even if the voice sounds like them. The warning says the latest scam appears linked to an ongoing campaign in the U.S. that was flagged by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) last month. The FBI said that since Apri l, scammers have been impersonating 'senior US officials' and contacting other current or former top federal and state American government workers. They then purport to send a link to move the conversation to another messaging app, but the URL actually infects their device with malware. Article content 'The malicious actors have sent text messages and AI-generated voice messages — techniques known as smishing and vishing, respectively — that claim to come from a senior US official in an effort to establish rapport before gaining access to personal accounts,' the FBI warned. 'If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic.' For the head of the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange, Jennifer Quaid, these types of scams have become so prevalent that she now suggests to private sector workers that they shouldn't always believe that it's their boss that's calling when the number appears on their phones. 'Never assume it's your boss,' she told National Post. 'I would give a CEO, a CFO and my 21-year-old daughter exactly the same advice: stop and think about it. Take a minute to think about what the request is, and then say, 'I will call you back' and reach out to that person using another known channel of communication,' she added. Article content 'If your boss is serious about wanting you to transfer $20 million, I don't think they're going to object to your saying, 'I will call you right back'.' Just in the first three months of 2025, the Anti-Fraud Centre says it has received nearly 13,000 reports of fraud generating over $165 million in losses for 9,092 victims. But as always, that is only the tip of the iceberg as the vast majority of victims don't report the crime to authorities. Both the Cyber Centre and Quaid say AI has tremendously boosted criminals' ability to make their scams more believable. But Quaid also believes that threat actors not being constrained by legal AI guardrails has allowed them to harness AI faster and more effectively than businesses trying to defend themselves. 'They're not using it with rules. We have rules, and I want to be very clear, rules are a very good thing,' Quaid said of scammers. 'But they are operating in a criminal environment without rules, without regard to due process and without regard to privacy, and that's why they're able to do more with some of these tools than we are.' Latest National Stories
