What better time than in March – Fraud Prevention Month – to go over the basics
Considering March is Fraud Prevention Month, it’s a good time for a plain-English cybersecurity refresher.
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Let’s take a quick look at three typical Canadians:
– Jane, a Toronto-based movie lover, is accustomed to seeing messages from Netflix about newly added films to watch. And so, it wouldn’t be odd to get an email, with the familiar red logo, saying her account needs updating.
– Meanwhile, Mo in Vancouver received a text message from someone at CRA about filing his taxes on time. Given that it’s March, tax season, he doesn’t second-guess it.
– And then there’s Stéphane in Montreal, who answers a call from his internet service provider’s tech support department claiming they detected a virus on his PC.
Though it may not be painfully obvious to some, all three scenarios are attempts to scam Canadians.
In fact, they’re becoming more frequent, costly and harder to spot than the abovementioned examples.
“Fraud is on the rise and continuously evolving with new advances in technology, with losses reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre reaching an all-time high of $554 million last year alone,” says Leigh Tynan, cybersecurity expert and director of TELUS Online Security.
“And that’s with only an estimated 5 to 10% of victims filing a report, so the losses are likely much higher,” Tynan adds.
Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) are making it more difficult to detect, confirms Maryam Saeed, head of risk at Visa Canada.
“Fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated, using AI to create convincing scams to ensnare even the savviest of consumers,” she says.
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