Sadly, there are already many scams related to COVID-19 offering for tests, household services, and protective items like masks and clothing. Below are some examples. For more list of COVID-19 scams, visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre<\/a> or call 1-888-495-8501. 1.\u00a0 Grocery Help Scam 2.\u00a0 COVID-19 Test Scam (text\/email) 3.\u00a0 ”I’m your family and need money” Scam 4.\u00a0 Donation scam in exchange of a box of masks Check the organization website to see if the information is correct, and contact the business office of the organization to make sure that the caller is legitimate. Always offer to make your donation directly to their office instead of responding to the caller\u2019s request.<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0 New Financial Benefit Offer \u2013 DO NOT CLICK or RESPOND 6.\u00a0 Door-to-door sales Scam This means, the contract of above example is not legal. You have the right to get your money back from the seller \u2013 up to one year to request.<\/p>\n CBC reported on May 1 that Canadians have lost more than $1.2 million to COVID-19 scams<\/a>. Here is some summary. **Go to the link on top for the full original CBC article.<\/p>\n Types of Cyber Scams<\/p>\n Any direct communication Canadians receive about applying for the CERB is a scam. (Etienne Biram, CRA spokesperson)<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Canadian Centre for Cyber Security reported that they took down 2000 websites that were trying to defraud Canadians, including some that pretended to belong to government organizations like the PHAC, CRA and CBSA.<\/p>\n Why now? Essentially, frauds are designed to get people to not think straight. So if […] people are already in that state … they may not be thinking straight. So it’s prime time for scammers and fraudsters to solicit for scams. (Jeff Thompson, Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre)\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n “Scammers often target small gateway telecom providers who pass the call or text on to larger providers. [… U.S.] Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission issued a notice to those gateway providers regarding international robocalls and robotexts.” Sources<\/u>:<\/p>\n **Go back to the COVID-19:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Recognize. Reject. Report.” Sadly, there are already many scams related to COVID-19 offering for tests, household services, and protective items like masks and clothing. Below are some examples. For more list of COVID-19 scams, visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre or call 1-888-495-8501. (1)\u00a0 Types of COVID-19 Scams 1.\u00a0 Grocery Help Scam Toronto Community Housing (TCH) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":10631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[280],"tags":[308,303],"class_list":["post-11286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-covid-19-en","tag-living-safety-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11286"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13722,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11286\/revisions\/13722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/a><\/p>\n(1)\u00a0 Types of COVID-19 Scams<\/h3>\n
\nToronto Community Housing (TCH) tenants are reporting calls from people offering to buy groceries for tenants. As conversations progress, these callers are asking for credit card or banking information. TCH will never ask for your credit card or banking information.
\n*There is an actual legitimate grocery help run by UHN (Friendly Neighbour Hotline<\/a>) for TCH tenants.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI got an email from a company offering a fast COVID-19 test within 48 hours. I signed the online contract and paid with my credit card. I did not receive the test.\u201d
\nContact your credit card company immediately and tell them about the scam. They may be able to reverse the charges on your credit card. Contact the company directly: to talk about your rights and ask for refunds. See the rules online sellers must follow, from here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n“I’ve got a call from someone claims s\/he is my grandchild in the hospital with COVID-19 and needs money. I don\u2019t know how I should respond.\u201d
\nIf you actually have a grandchild, talk to their parents and see if that is the true story. If you are talking to this \u201cunknown person\u201d over the phone right now, ask their date of birth, parents\u2019 names, hospital they are calling from, etc.; it\u2019s probably a scam if they can\u2019t answer correctly to these questions.
\nIf you decide to help this person, offer to pay the bills directly but only if they can provide account numbers or the names of who they need to pay (e.g. landlord, utilities). If they can\u2019t provide this information and insist on an e-transfer or some sort, it\u2019s probably a scam.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cSomeone I don\u2019t know called me asking for a donation in exchange for a box of masks that will help protect me from COVID-19. I don\u2019t know if this is legitimate.\u201d
\nIf you are interested in this type of request, ask a lot of questions first! For example;<\/p>\n\n
\n\u201cI got a text message (below) that I\u2019ve received the relief fund from the new emergency response benefit. It tells me to see the link on it.\u201d
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jss.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ScamText.png\")
\nAgain, DO NOT CLICK or RESPOND! Check the government’s website to see if this is legitimate.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI bought a duct clearing service for $100 from a door-to-door salesperson who said it would protect me from COVID-19. I\u2019m having second thoughts.\u201d
\nConsumer Protection Act (Ontario)<\/a> says:<\/p>\n\n
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(2)\u00a0 COVID-19 Cyber Fraud<\/h3>\n
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\nScammers see now is the best time where people have “heightened sense of anxiety, or fear … the isolation that people are in right now.”<\/p>\n
\n“Canadian telecom companies and the association that represents them, meanwhile, say they take the problem seriously but offered few examples of concrete action. […] Canadian should be vigilant about scams and report them to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.”<\/a><\/p>\n(3)\u00a0 In Sum…\u3010What to watch out\u3011<\/h3>\n
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