Coming across questionable e-mails and pop-ups while surfing the web is a common occurrence these days, and part of the reason why Waterloo Regional Police are working on a new initiative to raise awareness of fraud scams in the region through a seminar in Linwood.
“We definitely try to get the message out to citizens of the region of scams that they need to be aware of,” said Constable Andrew Abra of North Division.
Abra will be speaking on the subject at the Linwood Community Centre at 5279 Ament Line on November 27. He said the region has not seen an increase in scams, but the information night could lead to preventative measures as the public continues to fall for fraud scams that could potentially cost them hundreds of dollars.
“They are definitely prevalent. At the end of the day we won’t have to do an investigation if somebody doesn’t fall for the scam,” he said.
Common scams include one that has been recently circulating in which a caller claims to be a representative of Microsoft. The caller claims to have detected a virus on the victim’s home computer. If the person receiving the call pays him money he promises to forward a downloadable program that will supposedly clear the virus and fix the computer.
Microsoft does not do this, Abra explained, and those who fall for the scam never see their money again.
“It’s hard to say why people fall for this,” he said of common scams. “What it’s called in the broad world is phishing. If you think about if you were to go out and fish, you try a thousand times and you might catch one fish and that’s what these guys do. It’s easy to call a hundred or two hundred people in a day and if they just get one person out of that then that’s all they need to make money in one day.”
He says online and phone scams are the most common and the ones the public often falls for. Out of millions of e-mails a very small percentage might respond but that is all scammers need to make significant amount of money off of each person that falls for the hoax.
The purpose of the seminar, Abra said, is to reach out to the rural communities in Woolwich and Wellesley. The one-hour presentation will address the basic scams police see every day: common ones that the public needs to be aware of in order to avoid being swindled. Abra will be talking about identity theft and instances in which credit cards and driver’s licenses are stolen. He will also instruct the public on what to do if a scam is successful; how and when to report to the police and which government agencies should be notified.
“The reason we’re doing it in Linwood is to hopefully reach out to the Mennonite community,” he said.
