These are the scams costing Canadians hundreds of millions

In today’s The Big Story podcast, if the entire online ecosystem feels like it’s trying to scam you these days, well, you’re not alone. And you’re not wrong either. The past few years have seen a truly seismic growth in the amount of money Canadians have reported as lost to fraud, and most experts will tell you that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Zak Vescera wrote about the proliferation of scams for the Investigative Journalism Foundation. “The vast majority of fraudsters, even for the crimes that are reported, are never criminally charged,” says Vescera, “and in many cases, police units are so overwhelmed, they don’t really even have the ability to properly start these investigations.”  

So where did this fraud boom come from? And what do you need to know to prevent yourself from getting drawn in?