The internet has become a playground for scammers and cheats as people share huge amounts of personal data on social media.
Criminals can reach you from any part of the world to trick you out of your own money. In 2020, fraud attempts and financial losses climbed dramatically. Dave is a retired police officer who is well versed with scams and their victims and is now making videos to help prevent people from falling prey to scams.
Dave answered a call from a number disguised as local and a voice with a foreign accent tells him that he was in trouble unless he spoke with a government agent about his social insurance number and bank account.
He plays along with the scammer and presses 1 to be connected, and confirms his name, the caller pretends to be with the investigations department of Service Canada. The caller pretends to have a file in front of him, and pretended to confirm the fake information that Dave provided.
Pretending to be “Robert Spencer”, Dave provides a postal code from another city and a number for the police in that area. The caller then says that he had detected all manner of horrific crimes in relation to ten bank accounts in the name of Robert Spencer.
“Robert” pleads his innocence and convinces the agent that he was not connected with the crimes, to which the agent said that he would speak with police on Robert’s behalf to help him avoid the charges.
The agent again pretends to speak with an officer from the local police and then the fake police officer also spoke with “Robert”. Together, they inform him that his bank account was in jeopardy and his money needed to be moved to a secure government account. They say they would protect Robert’s money and return it to him the following day.
“Robert” knew well that if he followed their instructions he would never see or hear from the officers again. But anyone would believe the scammers and could be tricked into thinking that they were avoiding a scam or legal proceedings.
These schemers prey on the naïve and victimize those who are scared of falling into trouble or afraid of being defrauded. The elderly and those with little or no understanding of the internet are easy targets. Dave advises everyone not to engage with these scammers as innocent conversations can lead you to give out information that can be used to find you.
Dave says never to provide or confirm a single piece of information over the phone and if the call is real then ask for a name and politely hang up. Use a different phone to call the agency directly and verify the caller’s identity. Your bank and law enforcement will applaud you for your good sense and caution.
The retired police officer also advises you to look up the number yourself instead of dialing one provided by the caller. Sometimes scammers will hijack your phone and your verification call to any number will be rerouted to them without you knowing it was done. It has become easy to obtain your mobile or home number easily and find your name and address.
It is always best to refuse to provide any information or follow any instructions and hang up as police will never call somebody on the phone to threaten arrest. Your bank will never call and ask you to divulge information. And government agencies will not call you to help you secure your funds from scammers. This is such an important piece of advice for us Americans as scammers target us for their fraudulent schemes.
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