Another week, another potential scam making the rounds and officials are warning the public to beware.
Some scammers are impersonating the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) and along with the OPP and the RCMP, they've issued a statement saying fraudsters are claiming to help the CAFC with an ongoing investigation using its letterhead and logo and in certain cases spoof police phone numbers.
They say the biggest three signs of an impersonation scam are bank investigator, tech support, and recovery pitch.
A scammer will pretend to be from the bank, a credit card company, or from an online business like Amazon.
In these scenarios, people will be told that there are unauthorized charges on their account or that it's compromised and they need credit card information to resolve the issue.
Windsor West MP Brian Masse says he's been trying to work on this for a long time and get it taken more serious in Ottawa.
"Our Windsor Police are excellent on this file compared to other police departments, it's a matter of resources really. I am really trying to get across to people, including government people, that this is organized crime. And we did get a victory seven or eight years ago when we actually had the RCMP work internationally with some fraud centres going on in India," he said.
Masse says since then the scam problem has exploded, and more needs to be done.
"This is very sophisticated organized crime. If you're a victim of this, don't feel bad. These people are very sophisticated, they use behaviour techniques, and they have a lot of resources. You shouldn't feel bad if you're a victim of fraud, you should report it to the Windsor Police and also the Anti-Fraud Centre."
He says people feel embarrassed by falling for scams like this, and that actually leads to a lower amount of people reporting their incidents to police.
"It does matter when people call in, and we need to build the case that this is certainly something that needs to be dealt with more seriously than ever before. This latest barrage has been really bad, and I'm still working to try to get even the telecommunication companies to have to be responsible for some of the telephone numbers and access to service that the fraudsters are getting," Masse said.
Masse says he's going to try and push the industry committee in the House of Commons to try and deal with this issue in a more serious way in the fall, instead of solely relying on local police departments and the CAFC.
- with files from AM800's The Shift