Canadians should be on their guard as fraudsters try to gain access to their personal and financial information by posing as the agency tasked with protecting consumers’ financial security.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) says scammers are pretending to be calling from the FCAC Consumer Service Centre and asking for their SIN numbers and credit card information.
FCAC says it never initiates contact with consumers or ask for personal and financial information.
The agency warns that Canadians should not rely on caller ID to verify the identity of callers as scammers are able to change the information that is displayed to make it appear that their call is legitimate.
FCAC advises anyone who receives an unsolicited call asking for their personal or financial information to take the following steps:
- Ask for the caller’s name, company name and department, and then end the call.
- Verify the caller’s information by looking for a telephone number on your credit card, bill or account statement, online or in a telephone directory before calling the company directly.
- Call the company directly and ask to speak to the person who contacted you and confirm any information the caller told you, such as whether there has been any fraud related to your account.
- If you think you may have been a victim of fraud, report the fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
