Spot the Scam: Every day, people across Ottawa and Canada are falling victim to scams. This week, CTVNewsOttawa.ca will share their stories and advice on how to spot a scam. Fraud is a growing problem in Canada, but according to the Director General of the RCMP National Cybercrime Coordination Centre, Chris Lyman, the scope of the problem is still largely hidden from view. “Unfortunately, we’re only seeing about five to 10 per cent of people report and that’s because they’re embarrassed or because they really think that nothing can be done,” Lyman told CTV News Ottawa on Tuesday. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says it received more than 108,000 reports of scams last year, costing Canadians over $638 million. Lyman says if you fall victim, it’s important to report it to authorities. “What you do is first, you stay calm. You want to gather your thoughts, gather information about what happened to you,” he explained. “If it involves a bank transaction, contact your bank as soon as possible. You can go to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre website to learn more detailed things about that. It’s really, really important to call police and report to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.” To help people more easily report scams, the RCMP has launched a new online tool that makes it simple to let police know about a fraud that might have happened to you or a loved one. “We made a really user-friendly, online system where anybody can report. And we’ve made it in a couple different ways. You can report if you’re a victim yourself. You can report on behalf of someone, so maybe for a parent or a grandparent in your life. If you’re a business or an organization, you can report, and we’ve even got an easy to use, ‘I witnessed something’ – so maybe just that text you got, you didn’t fall victim but you want to share it with us, you can report it,” he said. The website, https://reportcyberandfraud.canada.ca/ has only been online for a few weeks, but it’s already seeing results. You can also call toll-free at 1-888-495-8501 between 10 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. ET, Monday to Friday to report if you don’t want to do it online. “We’ve only had it live for about three weeks now and we’ve already seen a double of the number of online reports we’ve seen, so, so far, it’s working,” Lyman said. The site also links to other resources and allows you to report anonymously, if you want to share information without being identified. Lyman says reporting scams can help more than just the victims. “It helps us figure out who is behind it, but also, to prevent further people from being victimized. It also helps us provide you with information if you’ve been victimized, so there’s lots of tips and tricks about how to not be victimized again when you report.”
