The Vancouver Police Department is warning the public that its officers will never ask for money, following a string of phone scams in which fraudsters impersonate senior VPD officers to convince victims to transfer large sums of cash.
According to the news release by VPS, the warning comes as sophisticated scammers continue calling members of the public while posing as senior VPD officers in an attempt to get victims to hand over money.
The VPD issued a similar warning last month after a victim was contacted by a fraudster posing as Deputy Chief Constable Alison Laurin. According to the news release, the scammer convinced the victim to share their banking information with another fraudster claiming to be a bank investigator, resulting in a $10,000 loss. More recently, a victim on the Sunshine Coast lost $100,000 after being contacted by criminals posing as Chief Constable Steve Rai.
“Police, especially senior police officers, will never contact anyone and ask them to hand over money for an investigation of any kind,” said Acting Inspector Shiv Gill of the VPD’s Financial Crime Unit. Gill said the criminals often operate from call centres overseas and can spoof legitimate Vancouver Police phone numbers, adding that anyone who receives a suspicious call should hang up and contact their local police agency using a publicly listed number to verify the caller’s identity.
According to the news release, police officers will never ask members of the public to assist in criminal investigations by transferring money or depositing funds into cryptocurrency accounts, and banks will never ask customers to provide one-time passwords, two-factor authentication codes, or online banking credentials over the phone. Legitimate organizations will not prevent people from taking time to verify information or seek advice before acting, and scammers can spoof phone numbers to make it appear they are calling from a police department or government agency.
Anyone who receives a suspicious call is advised to hang up and contact their bank or police using a publicly listed number. The release also cautions against depositing money into a cryptocurrency ATM at someone’s direction, since cryptocurrency transactions are usually irreversible, making stolen funds difficult or impossible to recover.
Anyone who believes they have been the victim of a similar scam is advised to contact their financial institution immediately and notify their local police.
