Oak Bay Police are warning the public of a recent report of fraud that saw a resident lose thousands of dollars.
On February 15th, at 12:37 p.m., police were notified someone purporting to be “Alice Johnson” from “Amazon” had phoned advising that their account had been used to purchase an iPhone in Dayton, Ohio.
The resident of Oak Bay was convinced to pay the scammer several thousand dollars, firstly by an overpayment of a “refund”, then sending payments to “Global Remit”.
The complainant was defrauded for approximately $8,000.
According to the BC RCMP, there are hundreds of sophisticated scams that are defrauding Victorians of thousands of dollars every year.
As of December 31st, 2022, more than 90,000 frauds with losses topping $530 million had been reported to Canada’s anti-fraud authority.
Now more than halfway through February’s fraud awareness month, it is imperative that Victorians know what scams to look out for in order to protect themselves and their loved ones.
In order to protect yourself from the most common scams the Canadian Anti Fraud Center released a list of red flags you should be aware of.
Related: Here are three types of scams to beware of during Fraud Awareness Month
