The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is deploying escape rooms in some shopping centers to help people protect themselves against scammers, as financial losses linked to fraud reach new heights.
• Read also: He buys from a store that doesn’t exist and gets scammed
• Read also: Fake electronics store: Scammers close their website and disconnect their phone lines
“It’s not a difficult mission, it’s an impossible mission.” This cult replica of the megaproduction starring Tom Cruise admirably describes the situation of the fight against fraud in Canada, while scams have led to record financial losses of $569 million in 2023. This sum was estimated at $530 million last year, and to $386 million in 2021.
These figures are all the more worrying because they only represent the cost of scams that have been reported, and only 5% to 10% are, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center.
Faced with this threat, the Canada Revenue Agency has begun deploying a traveling escape room in shopping malls to increase awareness of scams, particularly those that use the name of the Government of Canada. Canada to lure their victims.
One of these rooms will also be in place in the Montreal region from April 11 to 14, at the Place Vertu shopping center in Saint-Laurent.
This “immersive and stimulating experience” aims to “give participants the knowledge and skills they need to protect themselves against scams and to avoid becoming victims,” explained ARC spokesperson Charles Drouin, in an email to Newspaper.
Asked about the costs related to this awareness campaign, the CRA responded that it did not have the final costs at the moment, adding that the scams which take the name of the Canadian government to crack down have cost the population $451 million in 2023. .
The government’s objective is to raise awareness among “approximately 350,000 people across Canada” using the escape room, which was in Ottawa last month. In the coming weeks, she will also stop in Halifax, Toronto and Vancouver.
With advances in technology, scammers are resorting to an ever-widening range of scams, from investment and employment frauds to those that occur on dating sites, says the Anti-Fraud Center website.
The means available to thieves are also increasingly diversified, and they go well beyond the phishing attempt by telephone, email or text message.
For example, some claim to represent a government agency or financial institution, and they may send a QR code to try to extract information from their victims.
Others use artificial intelligence to create fake online accounts, or to analyze large sets of data and more easily identify people who are more vulnerable to certain types of fraud.
As the saying goes, “prudence does not prevent all misfortunes, but lack of prudence never fails to attract them.” This is why there is always suspicion when we receive a message that asks us to provide information or simply to click on a link.