The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) is warning the public of a scam involving fraudsters posing as police officers.
In the past several months, VPD investigators have spoken to multiple victims who say they have had money stolen from them by scammers pretending to be police.
The victims say they were contacted by phone by someone claiming their bank cards had been compromised.
“The scammers identify themselves as Vancouver Police officers and tell victims that someone will come to their home to collect the compromised card,” the VPD said.
“Shortly after handing over their cards, victims discover money has been withdrawn from their accounts.”
The VPD’s warning comes after a week of several victims coming forward saying they have been the victims of fraud.
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In one such case, a Vancouver retiree says scammers drained $400,000 from her bank account in less than three days.
“It made me sick,” she told CityNews.
“There are no words to describe it. That’s almost half a million dollars.”
In this woman’s case, she received a call appearing to be from her bank’s fraud department. They asked her if she had made a recent transaction. Then, the next day, they called her again, claiming there were more fraudulent charges in her chequing account.
This was a phishing scam involving fraudsters using technology to manipulate how their phone number appears to assume the identity of a trusted person, giving them the chance to draw out sensitive information from potential victims.
In a similar case, a woman says she was defrauded of $83,000 from her account at TD Bank. What is particularly concerning about this incident is that she says she didn’t provide the scammers with anything they didn’t already have.
“They knew my name, my address, my phone number, my birthdate; they knew everything. In fact, I didn’t give them any information,” she said.
Cybersecurity expert Theresia Joseph says scams like this are becoming more frequent and harder to stop.
“There is a lot of information about individuals on the dark web already,” Joseph said.
“Whenever an account gets breached, it collects in another database, and that’s how hackers, or people who don’t want your best, get more information, and they’re just going to put that together and unfortunately scam you.”
VPD Const. Tania Visintin reminds the public that no police officer or financial institution will ever send a courier or representative to your home to pick up a bank card.
“If you receive a call like this, hang up immediately,” Visintin said.
“If you’re concerned about your account, contact your bank directly.”
Anyone who may have fallen victim to any of these scams is asked to report the incident to the VPD non-emergency line at 604-717-3321.
— With files from Jack Rabb and Jan Schuermann.