If you’re getting strange phone calls lately that seem like they’re coming from legitimate sources, like the government or law enforcement, it could be due to an increase in spoofed calls, experts say.
Spoofing is a trick used by scammers that falsifies caller ID so that it appears an incoming call is from a company or government agency that a victim already knows and trusts.
A resident of Thompson, Man., nearly became the victim of a scam earlier this month after Thompson RCMP say a caller spoofed the detachment’s phone number and convinced the person to send a large amount of money through the mail.
Police said they were notified on July 2 of the incident, in which an initial caller reportedly claimed to be from the Canada Revenue Agency and told the victim that his social insurance number had been compromised and there was a warrant for his arrest.
The resident then received a second call that appeared to be from the RCMP detachment’s number in which the caller reportedly claimed to be a Thompson RCMP officer and told the victim he’d have to send money, wrapped like a birthday present, to avoid being arrested.
According to RCMP, a family member recognized it as a scam and was able to stop the parcel from being sent.
“The RCMP and all government agencies, including Service Canada, will never call asking for or demanding money for any reason,” police said Thursday.
“If you should receive a call such as this, hang up the phone and call the police back yourself using publicly accessible contact details.”
Robert Rochefort, intelligence research and profiler with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, told 680 CJOB there were some scams earlier during the COVID-19 pandemic that caused serious trouble, including scams involving the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) system.
“We’ve now had a huge wave of identity fraud on people who were actually applying for CERB, in which (the scammers) were changing people’s bank accounts to receive the funds,” Rochefort said.
“…Or they say the police are going to show up at your door and arrest you unless you actually take the time to confirm your information.
“The police will not actually show up to arrest you. Take two seconds — if something was really wrong, you should be able to validate this information to make sure something’s happening,” Rochefort added.
Rochefort said that if you get what seems like it might be a scam call, hang up and contact authorities.
Anyone who feels they may be the victim of a spoofing scam is encouraged to contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501.
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