There is a good way to protect yourself from fraudsters who never lack imagination to make the pass online: know their tricks.
However, information does not circulate quickly enough when a new tactic appears in the landscape. Fraudsters, on the other hand, are very informed, agile and fast. The same evening when Quebec announced the payment of $ 500 to deal with inflation, in the spring of 2022, people received fraudulent text messages about it. “To receive the $500 from Legault, click here! Ditto during the recent episode of ice storm, the false text messages of Hydro-Quebec offering compensation rocketed.
To rebalance the forces, a website that lists fraud thanks to the contribution of the general public was launched last fall by the Research Chair in the Prevention of Cybercrime at the University of Montreal. This is Fraud-Alerte.ca, your new ally to avoid a scam that is at best time-consuming, at worst costly and humiliating. After 6 months, there are already 4000 testimonials.
A few minutes on Fraud-Alerte.ca are enough to realize that tenants are in the crosshairs of fraudsters these days.
False management firms warn them that their rent will now have to be sent by Interac transfer to a given address. Bright ! Especially when the letters are well done, with a quality logo and impeccable writing.
Have you received this type of message by email? Beware, this is most likely a scam. Call your landlord before you change anything or believe your last payment hasn’t been received and needs to be rerouted.
Several Internet users have posted these letters whose sole purpose is to financially scam the less suspicious. Some contain French mistakes, which should sound an alarm, but you still have to be able to spot them.
Another observation that is obvious after two minutes on Fraud-Alerte.ca: many consumers make online purchases on any site that promotes itself on Facebook or other platforms. The not-so-distant era of hesitating to enter your credit card number on the internet is clearly over.
Do you remember this story of falsely manufactured leggings in Granby?1 what I told you last year? And that of these educational toys sold by a company supposedly established in Longueuil which used false testimonials from Montreal doctors2 ? Despite the warnings, history repeats itself. Unfortunately, Facebook lends credibility to these “retailers” that no one has ever heard of.
On Fraud-Alerte.ca, Internet users report having purchased a coat, socks, boots… a host of items that were never delivered or that did not at all conform to the description, and this, on a series of sites with unknown names: Floweroou, Hallowa, Bestoffers-stores, La boutique grande nuit, Luven Fashion, Bloomie and so on.
It’s always the same: great prices, fast and free delivery, tons of happy customers. The reality, however, differs from the messages displayed: impossible to speak to customer service, false order tracking numbers, complaints on Facebook are automatically deleted, lark.
The desire to make a good deal, combined with a certain amount of naivety, constantly brings grist to the mill of these sites which all look alike. And, sadly, the fact that credit cards generally pay off without complaining doesn’t make consumers as wary as they should be.
“These are all sites that work with Shopify. They still have a responsibility when the same person opens four or five merchant sites to sell a single product. They should raise a flag,” believes Fyscillia Ream, co-founder of Fraud-Alerte.ca and scientific coordinator of the Research Chair in Cybercrime Prevention at the University of Montreal.
Fraudsters who repeatedly create websites to sell junk frustrate consumers. But not only. A company that offers shared workspaces in Montreal was also a victim recently.
A bogus retailer claimed to be headquartered in their offices. “We were constantly being called because people weren’t receiving their parcels. We received hundreds of calls. It was very time consuming », says Olivier Berthiaume, co-owner of the SME Halte 24-7. Angry, cheated customers would do anything to talk to someone, including writing bad comments on Facebook.
If you do not know a site and its prices are too good to be true, have the reflex to “Google” its name. If you type in Hallowa, for example, you will come across Fraud-Alerte.ca. It’s a bad sign. This is precisely why this directory fed by the general public was necessary, according to Fyscilla Ream, because our first instinct, when faced with a potential fraud, is to go to Google.
Despite this tool, “it is quite normal to be the victim of fraud”, insists the expert who refuses to blame individuals given the cunning techniques of the crooks.
Be careful !
Who protects us?
Parents who had all the money in their child’s RESP stolen in January were reimbursed by Kaleido (ex-Universitas). But if the education savings plan specialist had not done so, would the victims have had recourse? If a fraudster empties your bank account and the bank holds you accountable for not being careful enough, is there someone you can turn to? The short answer to both questions is no. The Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) only reimburses losses incurred in the event of the failure of a member financial institution. Same thing on the side of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (FCPI) and the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). As for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, its role is to collect and provide data on fraud. The Financial Services Compensation Fund (FISC) can compensate victims in the event of fraud, but provided that it was orchestrated by an insurance, mutual fund or scholarship plan representative, an expert in claims, a financial planner or a mortgage broker. The professional must have acted “with the aim of deceiving you” and obtaining your money, warns the AMF. In addition, “cases of fault, error, negligence or omission committed without intent” are not covered by the maximum protection of $200,000.