Canadian consumers beware. Scams executed since the beginning of the pandemic involved include tricking people into buying fake vaccines and test kits, identity theft, and ransomware attacks. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre also said on its website that COVID-19-related fraud has cost Canadians $7 million.
Pandemic-related scams have duped over 8,500 Canadians
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security has announced that it has taken down thousands of fake government websites, emails, and notification apps – but data suggests that many Canadians still fell prey to these scams. An email statement from the centre’s spokesperson Evan Koronewski said that the fraudulent websites are impersonating the federal government to “deliver fake COVID-19 exposure notification applications, designed to install malware on users’ devices.”
