By Sgt. Will Thien – Operations NCO,

Elk Valley Regional Detachment RCMP

The Elk Valley RCMP would like to remind everyone that telephone and Internet scams are not a thing of the past.

Although more and more people are aware and vigilant against these scams, however, there will be some who may fall victim to these scams.

The most common ones are as follows:

1) Telephone: Someone pretending to be from a well known company like Microsoft, Google etc., telling the potential victim that there was something wrong with their computer or router, and coax the potential victim into transferring money or personal information to them either over the internet or at some money transfer locations;

2) Telephone: Someone pretending to be from a government agency (ie: Canada Revenue Agency) and telling the potential victim that they owed back taxes and if they want to avoid being arrested, fined or prosecuted, they have to pay a certain amount immediately (again usually over the Internet or money transfer location);

3) Telephone: Someone pretending to be a family member (usually a grandson or granddaughter) who is in some kind of trouble and in dire need of financial assistance. These types of scam usually targets older generations and would usually instruct the potential victim to send money either over the Internet or via a money transfer location;

4)  Internet: This usually happens when a potential victim is surfing the Internet and got on to the wrong site. The usual effect is the victim’s computer will be locked (frozen) with a message saying that the victim has been caught viewing an illegal site (example shown above). The message also contains instructions on how to pay a fine to avoid being charged. These sites may have police insignia attached to give the appearance of legitimacy. In actual fact, the victim’s computer had been infected by a computer virus, which had a secondary purpose of scamming money from the victim;

5) Mail: This is another scam that has been around for a long time. It involves a letter being sent to a potential victim with an elaborate story. Various stories are used in this scam that usually ends with a promise to share a fortune with the potential victim or some form of inheritance.

There are many different forms of scams but the above have been the most common and we have seen them in the Elk Valley over the past few years.

The ultimate goal of these scams is to get money from the victim and/ or personal information for potential identity theft. These types of scams are extremely difficult to investigate and almost impossible to trace. The culprit(s) may or may not be in Canada and chances are they are from a different country.

DO NOT engage these people in conversation, provide any information and / or send money. Simply hang up the phone and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call the Elk Valley RCMP at 250-425-6233.

For more information, please visit the Canada Anti Fraud Centre at the following link: http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/index-eng.htm

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