Three recent cases in British Columbia show scammers using a pharmacy, a police phone number and a real person's name to get card details and personal information.
Scammers are borrowing trusted names to trick people, and three recent cases in British Columbia show how. A caller pretended to work for a pharmacy in Fruitvale. Scammers copied a police detachment's phone number in Langley. A fake party invitation used the name of a real person. The Trail Times reported on all three as the Christmas season approaches.
In Fruitvale, Pharmacy IDA warned patients on Facebook that someone was calling while pretending to work at Fruitvale Pharmacy. The caller asked for personal information and credit card details. The pharmacy asked people not to give out anything if they are unsure the call is really from the store, and to call the pharmacy directly if they need to pay for a delivery.
Langley RCMP said scammers have been spoofing the detachment's phone number while posing as officers investigating identity theft. Spoofing means faking the number that shows up on your phone, so a call looks like it comes from a real organization. The callers asked for personal information.
The Trail Times also received a phishing email, which is a message built to trick you into clicking a bad link. It looked like an invitation from Paperless Post, an online invitation service, and appeared to come from someone named in a recent newspaper story. The link led to a lookalike website, not the real company's site. The man whose name was used told the paper his cellphone had been hacked.
The common thread is trust. These scams do not depend on elaborate stories. A pharmacy, a police detachment, an acquaintance or a known brand is often enough to get someone to answer, open or click. The holidays add to the risk, because many people expect messages about deliveries, purchases, invitations and payments this time of year.
Corporal Mansoor Sahak of the Langley RCMP put it this way: if a call claims to be from police and you are unsure, hang up and call the detachment directly using a publicly listed number.
People who think they have been targeted can contact their local RCMP detachment or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501. Fraud can also be reported online at www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca.
If a call, text or email asks for money or card details, hang up and call the organization back on a number you look up yourself.
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