General

scammers target the elderly, younger people and newcomers to get their money using many tricks and to push their victims emotionally. For example, identity theft, subscription scams, sales of merchandise scams, and tax scams.

scammers are constantly looking for ways to collect personal information from people like credit card information, bank account details, full names and signatures, dates of birth, social insurance numbers, full addresses, mother's maiden names, online usernames and passwords, driver’s license numbers and passport numbers.

The scammers use many techniques to obtain this sensitive information by going through people's trash or stealing their emails. Also, online they collect information by phishing emails and viruses. Tips to protect this information include, avoid sharing your personal information by phone or social media and avoid using public WIFI to do online banking. Use strong passwords that can be difficult to predict by scammers.

Subscription scams are when most people sign up for a free trial and forget to cancel. With legitimate companies, putting a stop to service and payments is easy. Fraudsters make use of the enticing nature of free trials, offering products that include everything from weight loss pills and health foods to pharmaceutical and anti-aging products. After providing your credit card information, scammers lock you into a monthly payment that is very difficult to withdraw from. So, it is important to read the terms and conditions before signing up and providing your card number. Always check your credit card statement for frequent or unfamiliar charges.

Sales of merchandise scams are when you sell merchandise online. You can open yourself up to a variety of scammers who trick you out of your merchandise, money or both. In one variation, the scammers will agree to purchase your item and ask you to ship it to an address and you will get a PayPal or email money notification for a pending payment to be released only after a tracking number for the product is provided. By the time you provide the number and realize the email notification is fake, the product is already well on its way. So never provide your personal information to buyers online or ship your items to anyone.

Tax scams are when scammers often call, email or text you posing as the CRA. In one variation of the scam they claim you are entitled to an extra refund and require your banking details.

In another, they claim you owe the CRA money and threaten to report you to the police if you don't pay immediately. These claims can easily be confirmed by calling the CRA or logging in to your account on the CRA official website. Also, it is easy to know if it’s scammers because the CRA will never use aggressive or threatening language, never ask you to make payments using prepaid credit cards or gift cards or use Interac e- transfer. scammers use this type of scam more with newcomers because they don't have sufficient information about the CRA and Canadian rules.

Finally, we are all vulnerable. We need to beware of scammers plans!