Internet Fraud on a Rise in Canada due to Economic Instability

The Federal Competition Bureau, Canada, warns users that Internet scammers, taking full advantage of the economic certainty, are targeting the unemployed people.

The Bureau remarks that as a matter of fact, the Internet has proved to be scam artists' and Internet fraudster's productive breeding ground.

Melanie Aitken, Bureau Commissioner highlighted the problem of Internet fraud as March (2010) has been made as the Bureau's fraud prevention month, as per the news release published by montrealgazette.com on March 20, 2010.

Aitkin said that the Bureau is worried about the increase in Internet hoax, which, since 2005, has grown 77%.

Moreover, she remarked that some new scams have been observed, but a majority of them are the old scam with a new tact, i.e. old wine in a new bottle. A rise in Internet job scams is also witnessed.

The Commissioner added that quite a lot of e-mails have distributed offering the job seekers to earn by working from home. The needful people are being asked by these fraudsters to send money so that they can e-mail them the documents to go ahead with the procedure. The documents, however, never comes in the inboxes, and even if spammers e-mail them, they are simply useless.

According to Aitkin, an alarming increase was observed by the Bureau in the number of grievances it had been receiving about online job scams.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Center (CAFC) and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) apart from the Federal Competition Bureau are also trying to attract attention of the people towards such online job scams, and thus, have issued a few red flags for users to foil these scams.

First and foremost, according to these work-at-home jobs offers one can earn huge bucks without much efforts and work experience. Secondly, to receive detailed information about the job offers or the company, or to be considered for a job, one has to pay money straight away.

Bureau Officials like Aitken, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center and BBB conclude that to be guarded against such online frauds, it is must to be tech-savvy and educated so that one can make out ambiguities in the malicious offers.

Related article: Internet Threat Volumes Overwhelm Security Companies

» SPAMfighter News - 3/30/2010