The Ontario Provincial Police are teaming up Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and the Retail Council of Canada to combat fraud.
The focus is on scams that ask victims to pay up using gift cards.
Police say $3.8 million in losses attributed to such scams were identified in 2021. The year before it was $3.4 million.
Detective Sergeant John Armit of the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says the campaign aims to draw more awareness.
“And ensuring that people are aware of how it happens, inform them of what to do when they believe it’s happening to them and provides some cautions and education so consumers and retailers can take some ownership to prevent gift card fraud from happening,” says Detective Sergeant Armit.
The in-store campaign includes posters and stickers to be placed close to where gift cards can be purchased.
“There are some indicators, such as receiving a call for someone saying they are a police officer or a government agency representative, asking a person to buy gift cards to pay to get the loved one out of jail,” says OPP Acting Sergeant Ed Sanchuk. “This will not happen. No law enforcement agency, court or government organization will ask for this.”
Rui Rodrigues, Retail Council of Canada Executive Advisor for Loss Prevention & Risk Management, says with the collaboration of the OPP and the Anti-Fraud Centre, their efforts will go even further in protecting innocent people from being victimized.
“Nobody calls you, telling you to pay with these means government agencies, police agencies just do not do that, no matter. So no matter what the threat is, people just like you need to understand certain indicators that if you’re getting those types of calls, just hang up,” says Rodrigues.
Official says if you do receive such telephone calls, emails or text messages, do not respond and contact the police and the Anti-Fraud Centre, so they are aware of such scams happening in our area.
