(Prince Albert Police Service)

By Nigel Maxwell

Phone scams

The ins and outs of phone scams, from an intelligence analyst

Aug 29, 2020 | 8:00 AM

Phone scams can come at anytime, from anywhere, and may even be covered by a number you trust like the RCMP or even a close family member, according to a senior RCMP intelligence with the Canadian Anti-Fraud centre.

Jeff Thomson recently spoke with paNOW about the challenges he faces, and ways people can protect themselves from fraud.

Earlier this week, the Prince Albert Police Service, re-issued a warning to residents about various scams involving the Canada Revenue Agency, banking institutions and other police and government agencies. The scammers were using a local phone number based in Prince Albert.Thomson explained that the use of a spoof number has become a common practice by fraudsters.

“So it’s part of the tactic for fraudsters to spoof numbers to make it more likely for people to answer, more likely to comply with their demands,” he said.

Earlier this week, paNOW published the story of a 64-year-old Prince Albert woman, who lost all her savings, after falling victim to a clever scam. In her case, the stranger claimed to represent the RCMP, and encouraged her to transfer money to another account, re-assuring here he was making the request to protect herself from someone who hacked her social insurance number.

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“The RCMP or the government of Canada or any police agency for that matter is not going to ask you to go out and buy gift cards, they are not going to ask you to go out and buy bit coins, and they are not gonna ask to transfer money out of Canada,” Thomson said.

Catching a fraudster

Thomson explained to paNOW that while there are examples of fraudsters getting caught, he added it is a very difficult process with today’s technology.

“There are two things a fraudster needs, they need to be able to communicate with their victim, and they need to be able to receive victims money, so when it comes to communication, we know with voice over IP today fraudsters can be basically anywhere in the world,” he said.

And if RCMP can identify the fraudster, another challenge comes into play.

“When you are investigating that which may be originating in another country, you are often playing by the rules of that country, what laws exist in those countries to engage police to help you,” he said.

In terms of recommending ways people can protect themselves, Thomson said the three step process is recognize, reject, and report. He explained it’s important for people to first recognize fraudsters are using email, telephone, internet, and social networking sites. Once someone knows about the potential of a scam, the next step is to reject them, especially those with urgent requests or demands such as the threat of legal action.

“Really do your diligence, don’t react to it, take a number and tell them you’ll call them back,” he said, adding it’s also a good idea to check with family and friends, and then most importantly report what happened to police.

“If it’s not reported, police won’t know it’s happening, we can’t warn other people, and the information you have could be the missing piece of the puzzle,” he said.

Update to the Chary Charles story

The story this week of the popular Prince Albert cashier touched a lot of people and there has been an outpouring of support for Charly Charles in the days that followed.

As of Friday, nearly $7,000 had been raised — close to two thirds of the money that was lost.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell