March is Fraud Prevention Month

(SOUTHERN BRUCE COUNTY, ON) March is fraud prevention month and the South Bruce Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) want to take this opportunity to get residents thinking about Fraud prevention. Fraudsters make billions each year and this will only end when the schemes stop making money.

Technology provides scammers with both an unlimited supply of information and the resources to create their scams. Tech savvy con artists can forge documents to appear as if they came from a government agency, bank or another established company that you most likely have heard of in an effort to gain your trust. They can also learn about you and your community from an online search before they try to contact you.

The OPP Crime Prevention Section uses the motto Predictable is preventable for fraud prevention. The key to prevention is to recognize a scam before you think about responding to it. The con is always an unsolicited contact whether it’s by phone, mail, email or other means. Unsolicited means that you didn’t ask for it. Remember, it’s not possible to win a prize in a contest that you didn’t enter in the first place.

In the past 2 weeks, the South Bruce OPP has received the following fraud complaints:

Phone call to offer a free home security system
2 reports of phone calls to advise that the home computer has a problem
2 reports of phone calls to advise of a large Publisher’s Clearing House win
Letter received to advise a rich relative has passed away overseas

There is no limit to the schemes a con artist will attempt to separate you from your hard earned money. March is Fraud prevention month, but the need to prevent Fraud runs the whole year long. Anyone interested in more information on Fraud can contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1 888 495 8501 or you check online at http://www.antifraudcentre.ca.

The South Bruce OPP is requesting anyone with information that can assist police to call 1-888-310-1122. Should you wish to remain anonymous, you can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or send a web-tip to crimestop-gb.org, where you may be eligible to receive a cash reward of up to $2,000.

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