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Mass marketing fraud: Have you been a victim?
- June 2, 2010 11:03 AM |
- By POV
Mass marketing fraud costs Canadians $10 billion each year, according to the RCMP's commercial crime branch.
The head of fraud investigations at the RCMP's national headquarters said that number has been growing steadily since 2007.
"The indications are from exchanging information with the banks, with private sector groups that are now starting to share more of their fraud data with us, the overall impression from all of those sectors suggests it's going up each year," Insp. Kerry Petryshyn said in an interview with CBC News.
The scams that lure in Canadians range from prize offers that require calls to a 1-900 line and end up costing consumers more than the value of their purported winnings, to the letter from a Nigerian millionaire who offers a huge payment for helping spirit money out of the African nation.
Read more:
Almost everyone has been pitched a fraud scam at some point. If fraud is costing Canadians $10 billion a year, a lot of us are being caught in it. Have you ever fallen for a scam? Tell us about it. Take our poll.
The head of fraud investigations at the RCMP's national headquarters said that number has been growing steadily since 2007.
"The indications are from exchanging information with the banks, with private sector groups that are now starting to share more of their fraud data with us, the overall impression from all of those sectors suggests it's going up each year," Insp. Kerry Petryshyn said in an interview with CBC News.
The scams that lure in Canadians range from prize offers that require calls to a 1-900 line and end up costing consumers more than the value of their purported winnings, to the letter from a Nigerian millionaire who offers a huge payment for helping spirit money out of the African nation.
Read more:
Almost everyone has been pitched a fraud scam at some point. If fraud is costing Canadians $10 billion a year, a lot of us are being caught in it. Have you ever fallen for a scam? Tell us about it. Take our poll.
(This poll is not scientific. It is based on readers' votes.)
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