What's Going Around Right Now: The Scams Every Canadian Should Know About

Fraud in Canada is not slowing down. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre receives thousands of reports every month, and losses run into the hundreds of millions of dollars annually — with the true figure far higher, since fewer than 5% of fraud incidents are ever reported. The scams circulating right now are more convincing than they've ever been, partly because AI has made it easier to fake voices, faces, and official-looking documents, and partly because the people running these operations are professionals who study what works.

This is not a guide for people who think they'd never fall for a scam. It's a guide for everyone — because the scams that succeed don't succeed because the targets are naive. They succeed because they are designed to trigger normal human responses: urgency, fear, trust, and the desire to help. Knowing the patterns is the most practical protection available.

**Package delivery and missed delivery texts.** One of the most common scams circulating right now arrives as a text message claiming to be from Canada Post, UPS, FedEx, or Purolator. It says a package couldn't be delivered and asks you to click a link to reschedule or pay a small redelivery fee. The link leads to a fake website that collects your credit card information or installs malware on your device. The timing is often deliberate — these campaigns spike around holidays and online shopping seasons when people are actually expecting deliveries. The defence: go directly to the carrier's official website and enter your tracking number there. Never click a link in an unsolicited text.

**Bank fraud alerts.** A call, text, or email arrives appearing to be from your bank's fraud department. It warns that suspicious activity has been detected on your account and asks you to verify your information, confirm a transaction, or call back immediately. The message may include the last four digits of your card number — information that is widely available through data breaches — to seem legitimate. Real bank fraud departments do not ask for your full card number, PIN, or online banking password over the phone. If you receive a call like this, hang up and call the number on the back of your card.

**Job offer scams.** An unsolicited message arrives — often on LinkedIn, Indeed, or by text — offering a remote job with unusually high pay for simple tasks. The 'employer' may conduct a brief interview by text or messaging app, then offer you the position. Before you start, they send you a cheque to purchase equipment or supplies, asking you to deposit it and send a portion to a vendor. The cheque bounces days later, and the money you sent is gone. This is called an overpayment scam, and it is one of the most common fraud types in Canada. Legitimate employers do not send cheques before you start work and ask you to forward money.

**Subscription and free trial traps.** An ad or pop-up offers a free trial for a product — often a health supplement, streaming service, or software tool. You enter your credit card details to cover a small shipping fee. Buried in the terms and conditions is an automatic subscription that begins charging you a significant monthly fee after the trial period. By the time you notice, multiple charges have already processed. Always read the fine print before entering payment information for any 'free' offer, and check your bank statements regularly for small recurring charges you don't recognize.

**Emergency family member scams.** A call arrives from someone claiming to be a family member — or a friend, lawyer, or police officer calling on their behalf. There's been an accident, an arrest, a medical emergency. They need money urgently, and they need you to keep it quiet. The emotional pressure is intense and the urgency is manufactured. The defence is the same regardless of how convincing the call sounds: hang up and contact the family member directly using a number you already have. Do not use any contact information provided by the caller.

**Online marketplace fraud.** You're selling something on Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, or a similar platform. A buyer contacts you, offers to pay more than the asking price, and sends a cheque or e-transfer for the excess amount, asking you to refund the difference. The original payment bounces or is reversed, and the money you refunded is gone. Alternatively, a buyer insists on using a third-party payment service you've never heard of, which turns out to be fake. When selling online, only accept payment methods you can verify before releasing the item — and be very cautious of anyone offering to pay more than your asking price.

**The one habit that stops most scams.** Across every type of scam, the single most effective defence is the same: pause before acting. Scammers depend on urgency. They need you to act before you think — before you call someone to verify, before you search the company name, before you read the fine print. The moment you feel pressure to act immediately, that pressure itself is a warning sign. Legitimate organizations — banks, government agencies, employers, carriers — do not require you to make irreversible decisions in the next five minutes. Slowing down, even briefly, breaks the mechanism that most scams depend on.

If you've been targeted — whether or not you lost money — report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or antifraudcentre.ca. Reporting is not just about your own situation. Every report contributes to the national intelligence that helps identify and disrupt the organized networks running these campaigns. You don't need to have lost money to report. An attempted scam is worth reporting too.