March is fraud awareness month across Canada.
In Saskatoon on Tuesday, police made a timely arrest of two Quebec men using fraudulent ID to make large withdrawals.
“We’ve seen this type of activity before. What you have in most of these cases are people who move from city to city attempting to commit this kind of fraud so they’re never in the same place for long,” said Alison Edwards, public affairs manager for the Saskatoon Police.
According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre the amount of money lost to identify fraud has increased by more than $6 million since 2010.
Brian Trainor is retired from the Saskatoon Police Service and now he runs fraud prevention seminars. According to Trainor, in the digital age the internet is one of the biggest tools to lure fraud victims.
“They may pose as your bank, they may pose as the government, they may say there’s been an error with your account and they need your information,” Trainor said.
Essentially, any email asking for your information should a red flag.
“You know it’s funny that everyone thought the most vulnerable were seniors, but studies have shown that 25 to 35-year-olds are the most vulnerable because they spend so much time online,” he added.
In 2012 Canadians lost nearly $16 million to identity fraud.
