March is Fraud Prevention Month in Canada, a month-long crime prevention initiative aimed at educating and informing consumers and the community on how to recognize, report, and stop fraud.

Frauds continue to victimize thousands of Canadians annually resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars being stolen from them.  Medicine Hatters are not immune to these scams.

There is a wide range of scams used by fraudsters. The best way to protect yourself from becoming a victim of fraud is to educate yourself on current trends and remain skeptical of any situation that appears too good to be true.  Criminals are constantly changing their tactics, and they are becoming more complex in their delivery of the scams.

Throughout the month, the Medicine Hat Police Service Community Support Unit will be sharing information on how to recognize and prevent citizens from becoming victims of common frauds and scams. 

This week the focus is on relationship scams which prey on our human need to connect with others. Relationships scams exploit a longing for friendship and relationships for the purpose of financial gain.

Communication often begins through a friend request or a “like” on a publicly shared photo.  These scams may continue for months or years with the victim truly believing that the suspect loves them and has their best interests at stake.  They will often convince the victim to send money to help them pay bills, or to pay for flights so that the suspect can visit the victim.  The suspect often has excuses for not using the money as intended and will request more money.  They will often video-call the victim to make the fraud seem more legitimate. 

In some cases, the victim’s friends or relatives realize the relationship is a fraud and must convince the victim who is deeply invested in the relationship. This fraud preys on people’s need for love and cannot only be financially draining but hear breaking.

Another common scam is the Grandparent scam where a scammer contacts someone pretending to be a loved one that is in trouble.  The trouble may include being arrested and needing bail money or having a serious incident happen where finances are needed quickly. Often the scammer will attempt to convince the victim that they need money within a quick timeline and request for the victim to keep the circumstances secret to not create embarrassment for them or their family.  We all want to keep our loved ones safe and want to help them where we can, which leads to the success of this fraud. This type of fraud exploits this care in hopes to trick the victim into believing they are a relative and sending them money. 

Extortion scams happen when a scammer obtains, or pretends to obtain, private information from someone or their family member and threatens to release this information if the victim does not pay money.  This often happens through social media applications and can often be associated to inappropriate photographs; however, it can also include any type of private information. The worry is that there is not guarantee that the information, if even possessed, would not be released anyway.

The best way to defeat these types of scams is through communication! If we find ourselves being requested to provide money to anyone that we don’t know well, especially over the internet, it is recommended that you ask somebody you trust about the situation. A review of these types of situations by someone not involved will often give a fresh perspective and typically lead to stopping the fraud. Further, it is important to remember that the internet is forever and that we need to be cautious of anything, including words, photos, or videos, that we post that could be used against us.  Once it goes on the internet, our content has the potential to end up in people’s hands that we don’t want.

For more information on common frauds and scams visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre website.

Media Contact:

Sgt. Adam Gregory
Medicine Hat Police Service
Community Support Unit
Ph: 403-529-8451