Calgary police are warning the public about a new twist on a common scam in which fraudsters pretend to be members of the Calgary Police Service (CPS) to target unsuspecting victims.
The victim will receive a call from someone identifying themselves as a Calgary police officer, who says the victim’s friend or family member is custody.
The fraudster will then ask the victim to go purchase pre-paid gift cards, most commonly iTunes cards, and will stay on the phone with the victim while they go make the purchase. Once the cards are purchased, the fraudster will tell the victim to read them the activation codes from the cards.
CPS said the fraudster would often use an app to make it appear the call is coming either from the victim’s friend, family member, or the Calgary police.
In some cases, victims received a call from someone claiming to be delivering a package to the friend or family member before they received the fake police phone call.
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In other versions of the scam, fraudsters would claim to be from the Canada Revenue Agency, and would tell victims they owed money for income taxes.
“As with similar scams, offenders are using very aggressive tactics to pressure victims into providing money,” CPS said in a Friday news release. “These tactics include keeping victims on the phone for long periods of time, threats, and harassment through frequent phone calls.”
So far this year, victims in Calgary have reported losses totaling $168,000 in scams where they’re asked to purchase pre-paid credit and gift cards.
CPS said 60 per cent of these losses were in the form of iTunes cards, followed by 31 per cent of losses in the form of Steam cards.
The average dollar loss to reported victims of these scams are over $2,500 each.
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