What To Do If You Have Been Scammed
Getting scammed is very stressful, but there are things you can do to protect yourself.
See also:
Fraud Recovery
If you have shared your personal information (e.g. social insurance number, credit card number, date of birth, name, etc.) with a scammer or were defrauded of money, call your local police using their non-emergency number to file a report. Even if you were not defrauded now, they should give you a case/file number which you can reference in the future in case you are defrauded based on this incident. This police report may help you negotiating with your bank to get stolen funds back.
If your SIN has been stolen, you should also contact Service Canada at 1-800-206-7218. For more information, see the Social Insurance Number/Service Canada website.
If you you’ve shared banking or credit card information with a scammer, please be contact your bank or credit card company.
You can report any fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. This is a joint effort of the RCMP, the Competition Bureau of Canada, and the Ontario Provincial Police. It is not an investigative service, however, so report anything you want investigated to the police as well.
If your SIN or other personal information has been stolen, consider periodically checking your credit rating to catch identity theft as early as possible. You can do this for free once a year with the major credit reporting agencies or purchase a credit monitoring service.
If you think you are at high risk for identity theft, then considering getting identity theft insurance. If you have house insurance, it may be included in your policy.