Scams and Frauds
Learn About Frauds and Scams and How to Avoid Them
- Fraud Quiz
- Take this quiz and receive relevant tips on how to avoid getting caught by consumer scams and fraud - see how vulnerable to scams you really are.
- Fraud Files
- Read some real life examples of telephone fraud.
Alerts and Warnings
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) - Scams
- The RCMP's site provides you with information on the latest scams and how they work.
Credit and Debit Card Protection
- Protecting Yourself Against Debit Card Fraud
- Taking steps to protect your debit card and PIN will help reduce your risk of being a victim of fraud. Find out more in this section.
- 10 Ways to Protect Your Credit Cards
- Useful tips published on the Canadian Banker's Association web site.
- Visa and MasterCard Fraud Identification for Merchants
- A list of common security features that can help merchants identify counterfeit credit cards. From the Canadian Bankers Association Web site.
Tips to Avoid Scams, Fraud and Unfair Practices
- Identity Theft: Information for Consumers - Consumer Measures Committee
- Identity theft (ID theft) is on the increase. It's one of the fastest growing crimes in the marketplace. This tip sheet identifies key ways to reduce your risk of becoming a victim of identity theft.
Canadian Fraud Links
- Reporting Economic Crime Online (RECOL) - RCMP
- RECOL provides real time data pertaining to the current fraud trends. It also provides support for education, prevention and awareness of economic crime.
- Phonebusters
- PhoneBusters is a national anti-fraud call centre jointly operated by the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
- The Competition Bureau
- The Competition Bureau's role is to promote and maintain fair competition so that Canadians can benefit from lower prices, product choice and quality services.
- Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus - Scam Information
- Links to information on scams originating in Canada - specifically Advance Fee Loan Scams, Credit Card Scams, Nigerian (or African) Letter Scams, and Sweepstakes/Lottery Scams.
United States of America Fraud Links
- Better Business Bureau (BBB) - Press Releases
- Links to the current years' press releases from the BBB.
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - Newsroom
- Press releases from the FTC organized by year.
- United States Postal Service - Postal Inspection Service
- The mission of the United States Postal Inspection Service is to protect the U.S. Postal Service, its employees and its customers from criminal attack, and protect the nation's mail system from criminal misuse. Their web site contains information on frauds and scams
- Hoaxbusters
- These pages, by the Computer Incident Advisory Capability (U.S. Department of Energy), describe some of the warnings, offers, and pleas for help that are filling mailboxes, clogging mail servers, and that generally do not have any basis in fact.
For additional information on this subject visit the Canadian Consumer Information Gateway.
