It’s easy and even tempting to blame victims of financial fraud by assuming they were naive or careless. But those who have lost thousands of dollars will tell you that these biases ignore the context in which the scams occur, the high level of sophistication of the methods used and human psychology.
Here’s a pretty effective recipe for making bad decisions: a good dose of pressure, about the same amount of stress, and two or three unpleasant emotions. Mix it all up and you could give your PIN to a scammer over the phone or even pick up a big stack of $20s from the ATM. It happens every day.
A variation: the scammer on the phone manages to put his victim in such a climate of trust that she ends up thanking him for his help, while the bank account empties.
There is no antidote to fraud that is 100% effective, but awareness and information can seriously undermine the efforts of thugs to enrich themselves off our backs.
A new immersive game created by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) allows you to learn how to sharpen your reflexes and identify real communications from the government. In the coming weeks, he will tour shopping centers across the country. Until Sunday evening, it is installed in the middle of Place Vertu, in the Saint-Laurent district.
I went to test it Friday morning. It’s not every day that the ARC shows so much creativity in raising awareness about a scourge. The concept, which is inspired by popular escape games, piqued my curiosity.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
The Minister of National Revenue, Marie-Claude Bibeau, is testing an escape game designed to raise public awareness of financial fraud and scams.
Just before I went inside the big box that looks like a container, the Minister of National Revenue, Marie-Claude Bibeau, had done the experiment. When you leave, after nine minutes, you get your grade. “I was given 87%. My team thought I’d just get 70%, so that’s it! “, the chosen one confided to me in a great burst of laughter.
The game is very realistic. Once in the kitchen and living room, we receive texts, emails and phone calls. All that’s missing are the children arguing and the sound of the television. Each time, you have to determine fairly quickly whether the messages are legitimate or not. It is also necessary to assess the authenticity of letters signed by the CRA.
In real life, we are sometimes rushed by time, we are moderately attentive, so in the game, to simulate this state of mind, the counter runs. Time to make decisions is limited.
In a state of hypervigilance, I was of course looking for obvious clues that would have allowed me to recognize the fraudulent messages, believing that it would be quite easy after all. But no ! When I left the fake house, I was given my result: 80%, with some explanations and advice. A legitimate call seemed fishy to me, which is less dangerous than the other way around, I thought to console myself. I also had trouble identifying real CRA emails.
Admit that it is easy to lose track and no longer know how each organization communicates. One day, we are told that the government never sends text messages, the next day Revenu Québec tells us that it will use this method.
Logic dictates that we should be extremely wary of any message containing French mistakes. However, two people recently told me that they had ignored poorly written notices… which turned out to be genuine.
They don’t make our lives too easy, let’s say.
What particularly worries me about all these scam stories that make the headlines are the cases where people swear they didn’t click on anything or speak to anyone. Despite everything, thousands of dollars evaporated from their bank account.
The CBC reported a few days ago that 140 customers of the Bank of Montreal (BMO) had $1.5 million stolen through fraudulent transfers from their bank account or line of credit. They plan to collectively sue the bank that refuses to reimburse them1.
The transfers, according to BMO, were made not only with the correct password, but also from the victims’ computer, according to the IP address. “Our investigations show that the customer unknowingly shared or provided access to personal information,” BMO told the CBC.
But a Toronto police cybercrime investigator believes affected customers’ devices were unknowingly infected with malware that could remotely collect their password and IP address. Is there any way to protect against this and all other technological advances? How to prove your innocence? What is the responsibility of banks? What is the government doing to protect us?
Unfortunately, the ARC game does not answer these complex questions which will, sooner rather than later, need to be taken more seriously. Last year, fraud deprived 42,000 Canadians of $569 million.
1. Watch the CBC report (in English)