By Alexandra Noad - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on October 4, 2024.
Scams come in many forms, whether it’s a virus on your computer, a fake lover who needs money to come see you, or even what seems to be a grandchild who needs help to get out of a pickle. The result of all these scams ends the same: the loss of money or personal information.
The Lethbridge Police Service held an information session Wednesday on how residents can best protect themselves against fraud.
Just last month LPS charged two men two men for their part in grandparent scams in which they used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to mimic the voices of relatives of the victims to make them seam more credible.
Sgt. Kevin Talbot spoke to citizens the most common scams, as well as ways they can protect themselves.
The most common scams people will be in contact are computer phishing scams, CRA scams, grandparent scams, lottery scams, extortion scams and love scams.
These scams come in many forms such as text messages, phone calls, social media, and dating apps.
As before mentioned, many of these scammers use AI technology to seem legitimate and Talbot’s advice is to ask questions and do research before sending any personal information or money.
“There’s no rush. You will be told to hurry up and send money now. Reject it. There’s no rush to do this, even if they claim that your grandson is in trouble and you hurry up and send money,” said Talbot.
Along with not rushing to send money, Talbot also recommends making social medias as private as possible to help prevent scammers from using your likeness.
For those who have been scammed, he says to not be afraid to report them to the police.
“We are not going to laugh at you. We’re going to take it seriously. We’re going to do what we can for you and hopefully we can get to a positive conclusion, but if not, that information is important,” said Talbot.
According to an article on the RCMP website the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre estimates only five to 10 per cent of people who have experienced fraud will report it.
Unfortunately, with the internet, many scammers are not located in Canada so being able to track them, however, Talbot says some jurisdictions, such as homeland security in the United States, are great to work with.
The bottom line of Talbot’s presentation was to not send any money to anyone you haven’t met in person and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh says the LPS are always willing to listen to any concerns the community may have.
“If you have anything on your mind, you can always reach out us. You don’t have to wait until a town hall. If there’s something keeping you up at night, please give us a call,” said Mehdizadeh.
The next LPS town hall will take place on November 6 where they will focus on property crimes. Time and location will be provided at a later date.
18
–“If you have anything on your mind, you can always reach out us. You don’t have to wait until a town hall. If there’s something keeping you up at night, please give us a call,” said Mehdizadeh.–
Listening without acting is useless and a waste of the citizens time! How many Town Halls have you heard the same concerns, yet fail to focus on the issue? We are tired of taking our valuable time to once again, for the 6th or 8th time, express our concerns and all we get is, ‘Look at the issues in Calgary and Edmonton, it is everywhere’. We want action and that message will be made loudly and clearly in the next few weeks.
If there is something keeping you up at night give us a call? How out of touch that comment is? Did you not here the comments of many citizens stating there are no police that respond in a timely manner when called on weekends and at night? As one person stated, they called and were told to fill out an online form. The form takes a long time to understand how to fill it out and takes a long time to put in all the information. We are frustrated and angry and once business owner now has a baseball bat to protect him and staff from assaults and thefts because police take over an hour and sometimes a few hours to arrive and then refuse to charge the person. Many just do not bother to call police anymore, so your high tech statistics software will do nothing. Time to dump it and go back to old school police, taking complaints, filing charges, with regular 24-7 patrols. The criminals have said when we tell them police will be called if you don’t leave, “Go ahead and call the police, we will wait here because they are not going to do anything”
These punks know there are no deterents and laugh at us. Are we to standby and allow our property to continually be damaged, our staff assaulted with little help from police? Frustration is turning to anger!