The Edmonton Police Service (EPS) has seized a .ca domain name after it was found to be fraudulent.
In May, police received a complaint that personal financial information had been stolen and fraudulently used to make purchases.
The victim had been using the site fanzy.ca to attempt to make a purchase.
The complainant had reportedly received several error messages while attempting to complete a payment at the site and the payment could not be processed.
A short time later, purchases described as “suspicious” appeared on financial statements.
The website attracted consumers mainly through ads on Facebook and appeared to sell computer accessories. Police said the site used images and descriptions copied from legitimate sites.
After a lengthy investigation by the EPS Cyber Crimes Investigation Unit, officers were able to seize the domain and redirect it to a police-controlled server.
“Seizing the domain serves two purposes: to identify further victims and to prevent further fraud,” Const. Phil Hawkins of the Cyber Crimes Investigation Unit said in a Friday news release.
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“We believe others may also have been defrauded by this website and want to encourage them to report the incident(s) to their local law enforcement agency.”
Anyone who has information is asked to call the EPS at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone. Anonymous information can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online.
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