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Open the pages of a newspaper, go online or switch on the television, and you’re bound to hear about a scam. It feels like scams are overwhelming us. Crooks on our phones texting us, and even, alarmingly, at our doorsteps, as some Calgary seniors experienced in recent weeks during what’s commonly known as the grandparent scam.
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As a leader of a non-profit organization based in Calgary, I am shocked by this state of affairs but not despairing. This is because a vital part of the Better Business Bureau’s mission is to provide free public education on the topic of scams, and more importantly, how to detect and stop them.
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Over the course of the past year, I have met a young woman fleeced out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in an online dating/cryptocurrency scam, heard about small businesses being targeted by impersonators and a Calgary post-secondary student who nearly lost thousands of dollars in an online rental scam.
The point is everyone, all of us, can be targeted by scammers. The ultimate equal opportunists, these criminals have one central motivation: to steal your money. They will do it online, in person, on the telephone and through the mail. They target seniors, the middle-aged, students, newcomers and, yes, young working professionals. If this scares you, you have the right. Every year Canadians lose millions of dollars of their hard-earned money to these scams. Putting an exact number on this is…
