Canadians lost over $638 million to fraud in 2024, with cases nearly doubling over the past decade. One expert says this rising trend is creating a crisis in financial services that is likely to get worse before it gets better.
Usually, it happens to you because you did one of two things wrong:
You forgot that when something seems too good to be true—whether it’s cheap asphalt for your driveway, an investment that rapidly racks up money, or a pretty young woman who’s interested in forming a relationship with a less-than-pretty older man—it pretty much always is.
You didn’t properly identify someone before giving them money. If it’s a business you already have a relationship, get contact data from a known-good source instead of responding to a call or email. If it’s your kid/grandkid/sibling/etc. asking for bail or plane ticket money, ask them a question only they would know the answer to and hang up if they don’t answer or get it wrong. And never ever pay anyone for anything in gift cards or bitcoin, because no one legit ever asks for either.
Remembering those two things will reduce your chances of being defrauded by 90% or more, regardless of the fine details of the scam. (No one’s bulletproof, though—if you’re having a bad enough day, your judgement can tank at the wrong moment.)
I’d also add that if someone is putting a lot of time pressure on the deal or you’re told to not discuss the deal with other people, it’s probably a scam.
Okay, I admit—like 87.3% of all statistics, it’s made up. Nevertheless, with the exception of a few scam types that exploit technical issues with international banking, pretty much every scam I can think of relies on the victim overlooking one of the two things I listed.
Usually, it happens to you because you did one of two things wrong:
You forgot that when something seems too good to be true—whether it’s cheap asphalt for your driveway, an investment that rapidly racks up money, or a pretty young woman who’s interested in forming a relationship with a less-than-pretty older man—it pretty much always is.
You didn’t properly identify someone before giving them money. If it’s a business you already have a relationship, get contact data from a known-good source instead of responding to a call or email. If it’s your kid/grandkid/sibling/etc. asking for bail or plane ticket money, ask them a question only they would know the answer to and hang up if they don’t answer or get it wrong. And never ever pay anyone for anything in gift cards or bitcoin, because no one legit ever asks for either.
Remembering those two things will reduce your chances of being defrauded by 90% or more, regardless of the fine details of the scam. (No one’s bulletproof, though—if you’re having a bad enough day, your judgement can tank at the wrong moment.)
I’d also add that if someone is putting a lot of time pressure on the deal or you’re told to not discuss the deal with other people, it’s probably a scam.
That % requires a citation…
Okay, I admit—like 87.3% of all statistics, it’s made up. Nevertheless, with the exception of a few scam types that exploit technical issues with international banking, pretty much every scam I can think of relies on the victim overlooking one of the two things I listed.