The McLennan RCMP is sharing a success story with March being Fraud Prevention Awareness Month.
According to the detachment, it noticed an increase in gift card related scams and offered gift card fraud handouts to local businesses to raise awareness.
RCMP Media Relations Officer, Corporal Deanna Fontaine, recalls a situation from last months in which an elderly man went to a local store looking to buy gift cards.
“The RCMP in McLennan implemented a new fraud fighting tactic, which was a fraud prevention handout to local businesses,” says Fontaine.
“The clerk used the information from the handout and became suspicious and decided to intervene.”
Fontaine says thanks to the clerk, the man was able to avoid being a victim of fraud.
“Because of the clerk’s intervention, the man reached out to his family for help and realized he was being scammed,” explains Fontaine.
“He had been in the process of liquidating his assets and would have lost $50,000 in RRSP’s had there not been an intervention by that clerk.”
Fontaine adds with the Mounties raising awareness of fraud prevention this month, detachments will be using the handouts more often.
“We are getting the graphic and physical cards to all of the detachments in Alberta,” states Fontaine.
The RCMP is suggesting that retailers ask that is someone is purchasing gift cards, they should ask themselves if the transaction makes sense, and if you would be okay if your loved one was the one making the purchase.
Below are additional fraud prevention tips from the McLennan RCMP:
Educating yourself and your loved ones can prevent future frauds. Here are some prevention tips:
- If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is
- Ignore communication from unknown contacts
- Purchase items from reputable organizations
- Never send money on a dating site
- Regularly monitor credit card statements for unknown charges
- Research organizations via the Better Business Bureau
- Don’t leave personal identification in your vehicle
– Kenny Trenton, Trending 55 Newsroom
