Saskatchewan suffered major money losses due to fraud in 2022
Saskatchewan lost $9.3M in 2022, almost double the losses incurred in 2021, according to data from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
The amount of money lost to fraud last year nearly doubled in Saskatchewan from the year before, even though the number of victims saw a relatively small increase, data provided by the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
According to the data, more than $9.3 million was stolen from 790 victims in the province in 2022 compared to $4.8 million lost by 643 people in 2021.
More than a third of the money lost, or about $3.3 million, was stolen from seniors, the data shows. Otherwise, about one in three victims is an elderly person.
The year 2022, fraud and scams have reached a considerable scale in Canada representing more than 529 million dollars unfairly extracted from some 37,000 people, notes the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center .
Ontario is the hardest hit province with approximately 11,110 people losing more than $213 million.
Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Saskatchewan, Natalia Stakhova, isn't surprised to learn of this increase in fraud. According to her, the phenomenon is becoming much easier due to technology.
Moreover, she observes that due to the difficult economic situation, people take refuge there to deal with the crisis.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Center notes that investment scams, such as in cryptocurrency, have been the most lucrative in Saskatchewan, generating more than $2.9 million and involving 65 people.< /p>
However, scams based on the collection of personal information have affected the greatest number of people. Last year, 121 Saskatchewanians were victims.
In this situation, a person poses as a representative of an entity and collects personal information such as name, address, account information, or social insurance number. The scammer can then use them for identity theft, according to the Anti-Fraud Center website.
But the Anti-Fraud Center does not report of any money lost to this type of scam.
Fraudsters base their strategy on unsolicited calls in order to deceive their victims.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) receives many complaints about unsolicited calls. solicited.
Last year, it received approximately 39,900 complaints from across Canada, including 511 from Saskatchewan residents.
The CRTC was able to link nearly two-thirds of calls originating in Saskatchewan to a known scam or telemarketing campaign.
Most calls originating in Saskatchewan involved scams.
These calls involved impersonators from a bank, business or government agency, but also phone calls in Mandarin that target the community Asian.
However, call volumes from Saskatchewan are lower than other provinces because the province is not affected by major telemarketing campaigns.
The Centre's Acting Customer and Communications Manager Jeff Horncastle says only 5-10% of people report scams to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, so current data doesn't reflect reality.
< p class="e-p">University of Saskatchewan associate professor of computer science Natalia Stakhova says the numbers suggest there is a lack of awareness of these scams.
That's why Mr. Horncastle also encourages people to educate themselves and others.
It shows the #x27;the amount of work we all have to do trying to educate each other, he says.
It's scary, argues- it.
With information from Nicholas Frew
