Ontarians Need to Remain Cautious OnlineOPP and CAFC advised people in Ontario to exercise caution when they receive emergency money transfer online. Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) and Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are warning people in Ontario to be cautious of money transfer requests or e-mails raising a sense of emergency. The warning came from OPP after it witnessed a surge in the number of attempted online fraud cases in Ontario. These bogus e-mails are generally themed on imprisonment or hospitalization while the sender is claimed to be in some foreign land. User whose account is hijacked and abused in sending out urgent requests to his contacts remains completely unaware. Last year, artists of emergency scam made 61 successful attempts while they failed 225 times, which led to a total sum of $230,000 being defrauded from the victims, according to the statistics for Ontario released by CAFC. Moreover, 96 failed and 23 successful scamming attempts have been recorded in Ontario by the end of February 2010. In this way, scammers have so far been successful in garnering over $88,000 from Ontarians in 2010. According to CAFC estimates, merely 5% of actual cases are represented by these frauds reported to police. In the wake of such scams, the OPP has strongly advised netizens that on receiving money requests, they should verify the identity of the requestor as well the authenticity of the story narrated in the e-mail in the first place. Anyone who suspects of being victimized by such an e-mail is requested to contact at the help desk numbers of the CAFC so as to get assistance. Users are also suggested to log on to the official website of CAFC to find which of the "Emergency Scams" have been listed under the section called "List of Scams". If the e-mail received by them is found in that list, then the users really need to be cautious. As March 2010 is being observed as the Fraud Prevention Month, Ontario Police is urging netizens to improve their awareness against Internet scams so that the problem can be eliminated just as it starts. Related article: Ontario Man Succumbs to an Online ‘Inheritance’ Fraud » SPAMfighter News - 3/31/2010 |
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