Calgary police warn of fraud calls impersonating officers

Each year, thousands of Canadians become victims of fraud, and Calgary police are warning the public of people impersonating officers and banks.

The Calgary Police Service (CPS) is warning the public about financial scams involving people posing as officers.

There have been more than 30 reports of Calgarians receiving calls from people impersonating officers this year.

Victims have lost more than $43,000 combined.

The fraudsters are making the caller ID appear as a Calgary police phone number.

Staff Sgt. Peter Duchnij says police will never call or email and ask for financial information or money.

“If the person identifies themselves as a police officer, it’s OK to ask them, ‘What’s their full name? What’s their badge number? Where do they work? What is the case number that’s associated?’ And ask for a call back,” said Duchnij.

“Call the non-emergency line at 403-266-1234 and speak to an operator, just to confirm all that data.”

If you’re a victim of financial fraud, report it to police or Crime Stoppers.

Other forms of fraud can be reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

More than 36,000 Canadians were defrauded out of almost $650 million last year, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Calgarian Danielle Gaddess was targeted this year, losing $18,000 to someone impersonating her bank.

The call display showed the name of her bank, and the fraudsters claimed someone was actively in her account stealing her money.

They even instructed her to cut up her card and sent a fake courier to get it.

“It looked like the bank. It talked like the bank. The protocols they were giving me were from the bank. Then they provided me the courier’s name, the courier’s licence plate, the make and model, everything that I would think that if it was a crook, they wouldn’t have provided,” Gaddess said.

She’s fighting the bank to get her money back.

“I might even be losing my house. They drained me. I have nothing to fall back on,” Gaddess said.