March is Fraud Prevention Month, so through this month we will discuss some topics around fraud prevention to help you better protect yourself from fraud. As we become more “fraud savvy” so do the fraudsters in the sophistication of there frauds. As well trained as we are to detect fraud, I find myself questioning some of the mail that comes through, some of this stuff looks pretty real, comes from all different angles, Canada Post, Amazon,
Even had one the other day from a website server saying our website domain was being duplicated and to send money immediately to protect it. I sent it on to our website people and of course it was as scam. All scams have common red flags. If you learn to recognize them and deal with them accordingly, you sure can reduce your chances of being a victim. The four common emotions they play on to try and get you to act without thinking are:
- Time constraints ( has to happen right now )
- Limited availability ( of goods or services )
- Take advantage of your emotions and are designed to keep you off balance
- Something catastrophic is going to happen.
The key thing to take out of this is they want to appeal to your sense of urgency to act now, things like, the tax man is coming, the police are going to come, your grandson is in jail. Get the drift.
To counter act and, be able to prevent from becoming a victim:
- Exercise caution – Slow it down
- Use common sense – Think it through
- Do your research – Make sure its not a scam
The takeaway from this is to always take the time to check your source and verify the information, as I did, sending it to the website people for verification. Call your local police station, Canada Post, find the proper phone number for revenue Canada in Winnipeg and call them, there is always the 1 800 number on the back of your credit cards. Never be ashamed to talk to a friend or a family member about it. We have all been victims at one time or another and a second set of eyes is powerful when you think that they are appealing to your emotions, especially when you consider the romance scams.
March 02, 2020