Scams involving sensitive personal and financial information are on the rise.
As fraudsters become more sophisticated, experts say it's worth double-checking — even triple-checking — if the person on the other end of a phone call, text or email is really who they say they are.
A few months ago, Colin White, portfolio manager and CEO at a Halifax-based investment management firm, received a call from someone claiming to work at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). White was suspicious from the start.
"I said, 'I'm going to go to the CRA's website, call the 1-800 number to ask to talk to you and if I get through to you, we can have a conversation,'" says White.
"So that's what I did because the scam calls can pretend to be a different phone number."
Sometimes, even if an incoming phone call identifies as the CRA through caller ID, it might not actually be the agency calling you.
In February, the CRA warned Canadians to be vigilant of increasingly sophisticated fraudsters. And new technology, like generative artificial intelligence, has made fraud detection even trickier by using replicated voices and conversations.
In 2023, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) reported that Canadians lost more than $554 million to fraud, an increase of $23 million from 2022.
The government of Canada website outlines the procedure White followed if you get a suspicious call from someone claiming to be from the CRA: take note of their name, phone number and office location to verify their identity.
Then, confirm the information provided to you by calling the CRA's 1-800 number. If it checks out, call the CRA agent back to continue the conversation.
White says to be wary if somebody claiming to be from the CRA calls and asks for your social insurance number, address or date of birth.
"Typically, if the CRA wants to validate your identity, they will ask for a specific line number off of a specific tax return, like, 'What was line 50 on your tax return from 2023?'"
If you ever suspect you've been scammed, White recommends calling the CRA to confirm if there's a record of the agency calling you.
Email scams are a bit easier to spot, but even those can appear authentic, according to Kirk Simpson, CEO of digital identity company goConfirm.
Clicking on links or responding to suspicious messages is where the danger happens, Simpson points out.
"If you have any concerns about a particular message — whether it be from the CRA, Bell, Rogers, FedEx or UPS — don't click on the link. Call the company and take action that way," Simpson says.
"It will take a little bit more time, but over a longer time horizon, that time will be well spent if it saves you from potentially losing thousands of dollars."
Scammers will often communicate with a sense of urgency, Simpson warns, encouraging you to make a deadline decision and will even use intimidation tactics to wheedle information or funds from you.
Simpson's team has recently created ScamSpotter by goConfirm, a scam-busting tool using generative AI to provide an easy, instant gut check on dubious texts, emails and online conversations.
For today's scammers, he says, it's all about volume, volume, volume.
"It's a numbers game, and generative AI is making it so that you can create more messages and send them out to more people much faster."
This article was written by Srivindhya Kolluru contributing columnist for The Toronto Star and was legally licensed through the DiveMarketplace by Industry Dive. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.
