March is Fraud Prevention Month in Canada. Throughout the month the Medicine Hat Police Service (MHPS) Community Support Unit is sharing tips on how to recognize, reject and report common frauds and scams.

This week’s focus is on investment style scams. Investment scams can happen in person, over the phone, online, or through mail. The intent is to get someone to invest their money into an established industry, up and coming emerging sector, or any other type of opportunity. Once the money is obtained, it is not invested and kept by the person that it was provided to.

Ponzi schemes are based on investments that don’t exist. Early investors are paid some of the money provided by later investors until there are no new investors, and the scheme ends. Typically, these are created by people offering high returns on money with low risks. The pyramid scheme often requests investors to find other investors and get them to invest as well. This keeps the scheme going for a longer period. Remember that when things seem too good to be true, they likely are.

Be wary of mass marketing scams where people are trying to get you to invest in crypto currency. Again, these are currencies are uncontrolled by governments and banks and once money is deposited into a digital wallet of someone’s other than yourself, the ability to get the funds back or have a successful criminal investigation is very low.

Some tips to protect your money from these types of frauds are:

• Ask lots of questions. If you weren’t satisfied with the answers, keep asking.

• Always be suspicious of high-pressure sales tactics.

• Investments take time and consideration, don’t let someone rush you in.

• Appearances and charisma are assistants to fraudsters. Pay attention to the situation and not as much as the person selling it.

• Always seek advice from professionals. Whether it be a lawyer, an accountant, or investment professionals.

• Never accept a verbal agreement; always get it in writing and keep it handy.

• Visit the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) Investor Alerts to stay up to date on the latest investor alerts and notices.

• To legally sell securities in Alberta, an individual must be registered with ASC (with very limited exceptions).

To protect against these common frauds, it is important to remain vigilant and NEVER provide personal or financial information over the phone.

To keep yourself in the loop about Fraud Prevention Month activities occurring provincially, follow the hashtag #FPM2023 on social media or visit the Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association website at https://www.albertacrimeprevention.com/fraud-prevention-month/

For more information about frauds and scams visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre 

Media Contact:

Sgt Adam Gregory
Medicine Hat Police Service
Community Support Unit
Ph: 403-529-8451