According to Ontario Provincial Police, investment and cryptocurrency scams take first place on the list of top five scams for 2024.
Losses related to investment fraud are “significant”, says Detective Acting Sgt. John Armit said in a video shared on X.
“You may see advertisements online to start investing in cryptocurrencies, and often end up communicating directly with scammers,” Armit said.
Armit added that spear fishing comes in second.
“Spear phishing scams, also known as business email compromises, are attacks in which a company clicks on malware or receives an email impersonating a company executive demanding urgent payment of an invoice or changing banking information. It could arrive,” Armit said.
Third place is romance scam. Armit says there are new developments in this type of fraud.
“Scammers are turning romance scam victims into investment crime victims by moving funds through cryptocurrencies,” he added.
Amit explains that the fourth type is recruitment fraud, where fraudsters use victims to launder money.
“With the economy in a downturn and residents of Ontario and Canada experiencing financial hardship, we are seeing a significant increase in job fraud,” he said.
Finally, there is service fraud. This can take many forms, including those targeted at older adults and pop-ups indicating the need for software updates.
“It could be either people visiting seniors’ homes to sign purchasing documents for new air conditioners, people taking out mortgages or liens on things they give you, or pop-up scams.” he says.
According to the Canadian Fraud Prevention Center, more than 41,000 fraud cases were reported to the center last year, resulting in losses of more than $554 million across the United States.