South Simcoe Police Trying to Cut Scam Artists Off At The Pass

A new plan from South Simcoe Police may prevent some folks from falling victim to fraud. A common scam affecting residents in the area is the CRA scam, whereby a person calls claiming to be the tax man and demanding payment. In most cases, the bad guy demands payment from the unsuspecting victim in the form of gift cards, especially iTunes cards. The funds from the cards can be later downloaded by these tech-savvy scammers. A new South Simcoe Police initiative has the service partnering with the Sobey’s in Alcona to hang highly visible signage near the gift cards, along with enhanced fraud-prevention training for the store’s cashiers. Sergeant Henry Geoffroy says he hopes this will help protect everyone.

He adds the CRA scam is a more common form of fraud, but there are others involving gift cards.

One of the managers at the Alcona Sobey’s, Lori Enwright, says this will help the public, but might even affect fellow employees too.

You can learn more about gift card-related fraud through the Canadian Anti-Fraud website.