Waterloo Regional Police have issued a warning to the public after several residents have fallen victim to a social insurance (S.I.N.) number scam.
Police say the scammers have called residents pretending to work for banks or different government agencies, including Revenue Canada, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and Service Canada.
“The fraudsters are very clever in that they are disguising their phone number,” Const. Ashley Dietrich told Global News.
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She said that the number appears on people’s phones as a legitimate number for the company so people are more prone to answer.
Police say that some of the victims were asked to provide personal information including the S.I.N. number and date of birth, name and address, among others.
In some cases, the fraudsters reportedly went as far as to threaten the victims with police involvement.
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Dietrich says it is unclear as to what the scammers are doing with the information as they have not been caught yet.
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“Our concern is that they could potentially use it for fraud but we don’t know that for sure,” she explained.
Police are warning residents to not provide personal information to anyone they don’t know unless they make the call.
If someone does call claiming to work for a bank or a federal agency, police suggest calling the company to clarify. They say that legitimate companies will always have safeguards if they request personal information.
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