Brian Lee
Technology has provided the second oldest profession —scamming — with an arsenal of new and increasingly sophisticated tricks. But despite the many ways you can be targeted online, creeps still seem to favour that dusty relic, the telephone.
Last month Sunshine Coast RCMP reported that a Coast resident received a phone call from a person claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency. The person on the line claimed the resident owed the CRA thousands of dollars, threatening arrest if payment wasn’t received immediately. Despite the scammer’s request to pay the amount in iTunes gift cards (by sending a photograph of the cards’ PIN information on the back of the card), the resident complied. The victim finally twigged that something was off when the caller demanded more money after payment.
A couple months back, a Madeira Park shop owner told me about a distraught customer who came into his store looking for iTunes gift cards for this very same reason. In this case, the owner of the store pointed out it was likely a scam and thwarted the transaction.
So far in 2016, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre reports 46 complaints from scams requiring payment with iTunes gift cards (with the majority purporting to be the CRA). Losses are in excess of $85,000. Then, last month, police in Mumbai, India arrested 70 people involved in CRA and IRS scams. The Better Business Bureau reported that between Oct. 3 to 9, the CAFC received 358 complaints about this scam. The week following the bust in Mumbai, that number dropped to 25.
To protect yourself, the CAFC asks you to consider "why the CRA would be asking for payment through an iTunes gift card... when they already have you on file as a taxpayer." This story might lead some youngsters to think seniors are the primary targets of the modern scam and they would never fall for such an obvious ruse. Wrong.
A recent BBB study found 69 per cent of online scam victims are under 45 — and millennials are more likely to get conned than baby boomers. This past fall, the BBB issued a warning to university students about scams specifically targeting them with online shopping deals or fake roommate or rental scams. A CBC story on the subject found it might be due to an "optimism bias." The story points out that younger and better educated people don’t share the older generations’ fear of technology and imagine they are invulnerable — which makes them vulnerable.
A few years ago, I was taken for over $100 by scammers claiming to be from a U.S. domain name registry. They claimed the rights to my harbourspiel.com had expired and I had to renew it or lose it. It seemed legitimate, so I paid up. It turned out it was a scam or at least protection that I didn’t need.
After that I was on scam alert but still came close to following the payment instructions in an email from "Apple" for services I subscribe to. It duplicated Apple’s correspondence in every way except one — the address in the header was in Belgium, not their headquarters in Cupertino, CA.
The variety of scams are endless and they keep changing so, when in doubt, hold off payment until you check with the BBB at www.bbb.org.