internet and telephone scammers targeted at least 42,000, raking in $571 million last year, according to the canadian anti-fraud centre.
and that’s just what was reported. shockingly, those numbers paint a very small picture of the damage done to canadian pocketbooks.
“only 5-10% of victims report to the canadian anti-fraud centre,” said agency spokesperson jeff horncastle.
for the first six months of 2024, the reported numbers are on track to match 2023’s total, as $284.3 million has been lost to fraudsters.
the amount of reported losses has been climbing over the last few years, according to figures compiled by the anti-fraud agency.
canadians reported $
164.7 million lost in 2020, $387.6 million in 2021, $531.3 million in 2022.
multiply the losses with the rate of reporting and it’s a multi-billion dollar industry.
“when you put it into perspective, where we estimate that only a small portion of victims are reporting, fraud is a serious problem in canada,” horncastle said.
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“a lot of victims are ashamed and don’t want to discuss what happened to them,” he added. “they may not want to report unless they’re guaranteed to get their money back or guaranteed restitution.”