TORONTO—That Nigerian lottery you won without entering might sound too good to be true, but mass marketing scams are getting more sophisticated due to the backing of organized crime and police say they are costing Canadians billions of dollars a year.
Monday was the International Day of Action Against Mass Marketing Fraud and police say they are working hard to keep scammers at bay, but want people to know what to look for as scamming continues to evolve.
The RCMP’s Commercial Crime Branch estimates that mass marketing fraud losses in Canada top $10 billion a year and almost 80 percent are carried out by large, well-organized criminal gangs. That is not only money out of honest Canadians pockets, it is money that strengthens crime groups and threatens the stability of the national economy, says the RCMP.
Inspector Kerry Petryshyn, who heads up the RCMP’s Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, says it’s great that most people laugh when they receive an email from a Nigerian prince who needs their help getting $100 million out of the country. But new scams have even caught lawyers and educated professionals off guard and Canadians need to know what to look for.
“The days of sending out 100,000 emails to a mass audience are over,” he says. New scams target specific audiences based on data collected in the age of social networks and expanding online profiles.
Service scams have been a recent addition. These include promises for discounted renovations and goods if victims dish out an advance payment. Old scams have also been updated to address the most common doubts raised by victims, Petryshyn says.
For instance, fraudsters have detailed scripts to address common questions raised by victims targeted by old scams like the luxury cruise call. When you ask how you won a prize you never entered a draw for, they actually have answers, some of which can be based on personal data available online.
Overpayment scams have also gotten more sophisticated. These tricks proliferate on online classified sites like Craigslist where a buyer sends you an overly-large cheque to purchase an item and asks you to send a small portion back. Those who comply discover that the cheque bounced and are left paying their bank the balance.
Even law firms specializing in real estate transactions have fallen for that one, says Petryshyn.
When someone asks you to send money in advance for an unsolicited product or service, you should beware, he warns.
Petryshyn says he started looking into mass marketing fraud a year ago and was stunned by the numbers he was finding.
“I don’t think anybody really had any idea of how bad the problem really was,” he says.
Only between one and five percent of victims are even estimated to report having been scammed, making it difficult for law enforcement to pursue criminals. That is partly because criminals attempt to target a large number of people for a small amount, knowing most will not report being defrauded for sums like $30.
“The loss is an acceptable loss and the bad guys are taking advantage of that,” says Petryshyn.
A 2008 Environics study found that 1 in 20 Canadians had fallen victim to one of the 12 most common scams in the last 12 months.
In response to the growing tide of fraudsters, some netizens are taking matters into their own hands. In a new movement called “scambaiting,” people attempt to engage scammers in an effort to waste their time or even take their money. In one popular tale, a scambaiter tricked a would-be fraudster into carving for him an exact wooden duplicate of a Commodore 64 keyboard.
But Petryshyn says scambaiters should be careful because most mass marketing fraud is now carried out by large and dangerous organized criminal groups.
“The last thing you want to do is provoke an organized crime group.”
Other new scams include virtual kidnappings where scammers collect information about a person and their family through online profiles and social networking sites, or even local news reports. They then use the information to convince the victim that they will kidnap the victim’s children.
By telling the victim personal information such as their children’s names and sports activities, where they live and the colour of their house—which can now be seen with Google street view—they scare the victim into paying a fee to avoid the kidnapping.
“This has really happened,” Petryshyn says.
The inspector says many scams can be detected if people know what to look for and exercise due caution. To that end, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is preparing to launch a new website with information that can arm people against crafty criminals.
Monday was the International Day of Action Against Mass Marketing Fraud and police say they are working hard to keep scammers at bay, but want people to know what to look for as scamming continues to evolve.
The RCMP’s Commercial Crime Branch estimates that mass marketing fraud losses in Canada top $10 billion a year and almost 80 percent are carried out by large, well-organized criminal gangs. That is not only money out of honest Canadians pockets, it is money that strengthens crime groups and threatens the stability of the national economy, says the RCMP.
Inspector Kerry Petryshyn, who heads up the RCMP’s Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, says it’s great that most people laugh when they receive an email from a Nigerian prince who needs their help getting $100 million out of the country. But new scams have even caught lawyers and educated professionals off guard and Canadians need to know what to look for.
“The days of sending out 100,000 emails to a mass audience are over,” he says. New scams target specific audiences based on data collected in the age of social networks and expanding online profiles.
Service scams have been a recent addition. These include promises for discounted renovations and goods if victims dish out an advance payment. Old scams have also been updated to address the most common doubts raised by victims, Petryshyn says.
For instance, fraudsters have detailed scripts to address common questions raised by victims targeted by old scams like the luxury cruise call. When you ask how you won a prize you never entered a draw for, they actually have answers, some of which can be based on personal data available online.
Overpayment scams have also gotten more sophisticated. These tricks proliferate on online classified sites like Craigslist where a buyer sends you an overly-large cheque to purchase an item and asks you to send a small portion back. Those who comply discover that the cheque bounced and are left paying their bank the balance.
Even law firms specializing in real estate transactions have fallen for that one, says Petryshyn.
When someone asks you to send money in advance for an unsolicited product or service, you should beware, he warns.
Petryshyn says he started looking into mass marketing fraud a year ago and was stunned by the numbers he was finding.
“I don’t think anybody really had any idea of how bad the problem really was,” he says.
Only between one and five percent of victims are even estimated to report having been scammed, making it difficult for law enforcement to pursue criminals. That is partly because criminals attempt to target a large number of people for a small amount, knowing most will not report being defrauded for sums like $30.
“The loss is an acceptable loss and the bad guys are taking advantage of that,” says Petryshyn.
A 2008 Environics study found that 1 in 20 Canadians had fallen victim to one of the 12 most common scams in the last 12 months.
In response to the growing tide of fraudsters, some netizens are taking matters into their own hands. In a new movement called “scambaiting,” people attempt to engage scammers in an effort to waste their time or even take their money. In one popular tale, a scambaiter tricked a would-be fraudster into carving for him an exact wooden duplicate of a Commodore 64 keyboard.
But Petryshyn says scambaiters should be careful because most mass marketing fraud is now carried out by large and dangerous organized criminal groups.
“The last thing you want to do is provoke an organized crime group.”
Other new scams include virtual kidnappings where scammers collect information about a person and their family through online profiles and social networking sites, or even local news reports. They then use the information to convince the victim that they will kidnap the victim’s children.
By telling the victim personal information such as their children’s names and sports activities, where they live and the colour of their house—which can now be seen with Google street view—they scare the victim into paying a fee to avoid the kidnapping.
“This has really happened,” Petryshyn says.
The inspector says many scams can be detected if people know what to look for and exercise due caution. To that end, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is preparing to launch a new website with information that can arm people against crafty criminals.
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