Report on March Speaker: – Gary O’Brien, RCMP, ”Scams and Frauds in our Community”

Our Guest Speaker on March 7 was Gary O’Brien who spoke to us about Scams and Frauds in our communities. Gary served as a regular member of the RCMP for 32 years and he is currently the RCMP Media Relations Officer for the Nanaimo detachment.

Gary’s talk was highly interactive with the audience where some of our members told their own stories about being scammed.

Some notable highlights of Gary’s talk included:

There is an entity in Canada called the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CADC). Police use this database as a resource and the general public can too, at the website “www.antifraudcentre.ca”.
It is estimated that only 5 % of frauds are reported to the police. In 2024 that 5% amounted to $638 million so the actual amount lost would amount to several billion dollars!
Cell phones are the biggest source of information for scammers who extract information and manipulate that information to suit their purpose. This will accelerate even more with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology.
Scammers are targeting seniors more and more. Methods deployed include lotto “wins”, romance traps and phone call scams.
Never give out your internet address nor passwords.
Facebook Marketplace is full of scammers and is open to worldwide scammers.
If you are even the slightest bit concerned about a call or contact simply decline any gestures. If the caller seems to be legitimate take a phone number on the premise to call back and then contact a highly trusted friend or family member to get a second opinion about what to do.
Never give out your credit card or debit card pin number.
Check your bank balance regularly.
Lock your car. 50% of unlocked cars are broken into.
The number one thing stolen from cars is men’s wallets.