A cautionary tale

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/03/2022 (1637 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tricia assumed she could get her money back if she wanted — as the ad for an investment course had suggested.

While browsing YouTube last fall, an ad about successful stock market investing for high returns caught the Winnipeg office worker’s attention.

And she decided to give it a shot.

After all, Tricia — who did not want her real name used in this story — had been trying to save for years. The promise of doubling her investment in a short period of time seemed as though it could help her save more and pay off her mortgage faster.

“I thought, ‘there is no harm in trying,’” she says, falsely believing at the time that as an advertisement on YouTube, the investment company must be legitimate.

So Tricia registered on the website of the alleged company, called ‘Finance and Currency Limited’ and paid its $350 registration fee.

That was just the start of her unsettling, frustrating and ultimately very costly three-month nightmare with fraudsters overseas that cost her more than $15,000.

Consider Tricia’s story a cautionary tale, one among a handful discussed in podcasts released this March for Fraud Prevention Month, created by the Manitoba Securities Commission (MSC) for its ongoing campaign, ‘Time to Call Out Fraud.’

“What we’re aiming to do is really shine a spotlight on how fraud is perpetrated,” says Ainsley Cunningham, manager of education and communications for the Manitoba Financial Services Agency.

A series of seven podcasts of about 10 minutes each, featuring several experts, it’s victims’ stories like Tricia’s that are likely to resonate most.

“As regulators, we can talk about fraud all we want, but the real-life examples — including conversations that took place between our investigators and off-shore boiler rooms — that add real weight to prevention efforts,” she says.

“People can see, for example, the psychological tricks used by people perpetrating it and how they play upon the emotions of victims.”

The message couldn’t be needed more, given fraud’s increased prevalence, a recent poll suggests.

Released this month, the RBC study found 54 per cent of Manitobans indicated feeling increasingly targeted by fraudsters since the start of the pandemic — the highest figure among Canadians.

Even more troubling: more than half admit it’s getting harder to tell the difference between what’s a real text or email, for example, and what’s fraudulent.

As fraudsters become more adept at emulating, for instance, an email from your bank requiring you to log into your account, giving them access to your account, victims’ losses are mounting.

“For example we saw a massive increase in 2021 in losses in Canada,” says Kevin Purkiss, vice-president of fraud management at RBC.

“The figure is almost $380 million, representing 50,000 Canadians that are victims of fraud.”

What’s more is this large sum — a 2021 figure from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre marking a 130 per cent rise from 2020 — is probably a massive under-estimate.

The federal government agency figures most fraud — about 95 per cent — is not reported. In turn those losses may be more like $7 billion last year.

It’s not the people we typically imagine victimized either: seniors. People of all ages are getting scammed, including young adults so fond of TikTok and cryptocurrency.

Together these new technologies make for an enticing, toxic brew of misinformation — essentially get-rich-quick investment scams, Cunningham says.

That’s what these podcasts aim to combat with factual information from experts in behavioural psychology and veteran fraud investigators.

Among those experts is lawyer Jana Taylor, legal counsel for the Public Guardian and Trustee of Manitoba, who works to protect vulnerable Manitobans who often cannot manage their finances and other affairs on their own.

“Some of the things that I speak about in the podcast are related to prevention and the best safeguards against falling prey to financial abuse and fraud.”

That includes preparing for the eventuality you could be unable to manage your own affairs.

“We always say to people that there are three documents that are important for people to have at any age as an adult,” she says. “Those are an enduring power of attorney, a health care directive and a will because that way you will be able to express while you’re capable what your wishes are for the management of your affairs if you lose capacity.”

Indeed, this kind of planning helps avoid making bad situations worse with the wrong people in charge of your money, she adds.

Beyond prevention, however, Taylor has another key point to get across — offering understanding and kindness to victims.

“There can be a sense of, ‘How could you do this?’ when perhaps we need to be more supportive,” she says. “So instead of blaming the victim, we should take the approach that this isn’t their fault; the blame falls on the criminals who victimize them.”

Yet the strongest weapon against fraud is often the experiences of victims like Tricia, who talk about the pressure tactics and how fraudsters know just how to mix the right amount of real financial advice with their pitch to make a scam feel real.

“It was a very hard and costly lesson to learn,” she adds. “That’s why I am sharing my story because I don’t want anyone else to end up being in my shoes.”