Tips on avoiding popular online scams

Eleanor Dunn offers a primer on cybercrime

By Manor Park Chronicle February 17, 2024

Online fraud and scams, including cyber threats like phishing, are costing Canadians a lot of money. Accordin to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, in 2022 there were 70,878 reports of fraud in Canada with over $530 million stolen. Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay

Picture this. You’re swiping through Facebook Marketplace, hoping to see if anything on sale is of interest to you. You see an item and open the site. It’s just what you’ve always wanted. You’re in touch with the seller by phone and follow their instructions which include paying for the item up front. In exchange you’re given an address — the site where you’re to go to pick up your purchase.

It’s a suburban neighborhood, single family homes, and the door is answered by the homeowner who is obviously irritated as you’re the thirtieth person who has rung his doorbell in the past four days–looking for the same item you believe you have purchased.

The homeowner explains you’re the victim of a scam. He produces a police incident report detailing all the appearances at his door. Apparently, he’s a victim, too. His address has been chosen at random by the scammers as the pickup point.

This is just one of the many scams making the rounds right now, and it’s one of the most difficult for police. The scammers constantly change their phone number using “burner” phones that are virtually untraceable. You will never get your money back.

Here are some tips for avoiding popular online scams.

Safe trade zones

Your first mistake was believing the person you were dealing with was honest. The request for payment up front before you see and examine the goods is a tipoff.

To protect yourself, try to make arrangements for the cash for goods exchange to take place at a safe location. The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) has established three “safe trade zones”, described as “designated parking spots designed to support safety when completing trades stemming from online marketplaces and websites or any other type of personal sales.”

The areas are well-lit, equipped with surveillance cameras and marked with signs and a blue logo. (However, they’re not monitored 24 hours per day.)

Safe trade zones are at the following locations:

466 Metcalfe St. (visitors’ parking lot behind 474 Elgin St. police station)
211 Huntmar Dr. (Kanata police station)
3343 St-Joseph Blvd. (Orléans police station)

If the seller refuses and insists on cash up front in exchange for a pickup address, this is a red flag. Beware! Don’t be a victim.

Phishing expeditions

Other scams involve e-mail. Are you getting strange e-mails advising you that your Netflix or another account is being suspended? Or that UPS has a parcel for you (which you haven’t ordered) and you need to pay to get it delivered (after all, it could be from your Aunt Nellie)? Or Bell is having problems processing your payment . . .

These are phishing expeditions. The scammers are phishing for your credit card information.

You can usually spot these scams by checking the spelling on the e-mail, even though the letterhead makes them look like the real thing. For example, you might use a Norton security system to protect your computer. You might receive a realistic-looking e-mail claiming to be from Norton and stating there is a problem with your service. Take a closer look — you’ll find that the e-mail is from “Norfon”. The e-mail was fake, designed to separate you from your money.

If you get an e-mail which looks like it’s from your bank, do a quick telephone call to your bank to determine if it’s the real thing.

Phishing might also involve a phone call about an account you might have. Usually this takes the form of a recorded message that sends you to an “operator” who gives you a spiel about needing to “check” your credit card information. Beware!

Grandparent scam

Watch out for the “grandparent” phone scam as it’s still out there. (This is a scan where someone calls claiming to be a relative who is experiencing a crisis and needs money.)

If you have call display on your phone, the scammers don’t have a phone number that police could use to track them down, so grandparent scammers usually show as “private caller”. Call display can protect you from scammers. If you don’t recognize the phone number, don’t answer the call. If it’s a friend, they will leave a message.

Sometimes avoiding popular online scams is a matter of staying current. If you’re concerned about crime in your neighborhood, the OPS crime map is now up and running on the service’s web site, www.ottawapolice.ca. This is a very useful database that anyone can access, broken down by both criminal activity and neighborhood. Check it out!