March is Fraud Awareness Month and the timing is perfect considering Canadians are headed into tax season.
John Schultz, the Special Constable with the North Bay police, says given the time of year, people need to be vigilant and to expect fraudsters to call and claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency.
“They know it’s tax season,” Schultz said.
“And they’ll be running the scam again.”
Schultz says the CRA does not send people emails or calls them saying you owe money and then threaten them.
However, he points out this is what the con artists do.
“They put fear into you,” he said.
“They say the police will come to arrest you if you don’t pay your taxes.”
Schultz says that just won’t happen.
But he points out people fall for this and other scams and North Bay and area residents can count themselves as some of the victims.
“Last year we had a little more than 200 complaints about mass-marketing fraud and about half a million dollars lost in the North Bay and Callander area,” he said.
Schultz says the best defence against fraud is education.
He says people need to educate themselves and family members over how frauds are perpetrated.
But Schultz says don’t stop there.
He says when people hear on the radio or see on TV stories about fraud, they should talk to neighbours to keep the awareness level high.
“Prevention stops victimization,” Schultz said.
He adds a good place to start the education process is by going online to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre which lists the various types of frauds that are out there and how to avoid becoming a victim.
Schultz has some tips for people to consider to help avoid being defrauded.
He says always check your credit card statement to make sure all the charges are yours and not from someone who accessed your card illegally and bought something using your money.
He says if you dispute a charge within a month or two of getting your statement, the credit card company will reimburse you.
Schultz also says be careful with popups on your email.
He says sometimes if you click the link in the popup you could end up downloading a virus onto your computer.
The advice here is to be certain you know who the email is from.
A third suggestion from Schultz is to avoid performing sensitive functions on free wi-fi systems.
He says this may be fine for getting news from, but you should avoid doing banking on a system that provides free wi-fi because it’s just not secure.
He says a hacker can easily get into an unsecured site and the next thing you know, you’re banking information is being stolen almost before your eyes.
