BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication).
This morning I was enjoying a cup of coffee. At 7 a.m., our old landline phone with no display rang. It was a long-distance call. Thinking it was our daughter from B.C., I answered the phone.
A female voice responded with, "There has been an order #GH 86149 on your Amazon account for $998.97. If you have not placed this order, please press 1 for further details."
Legitimate organizations will never call you directly. Hang up and for verification call your bank, credit card or company using the phone number from a trusted source.
Last year, Canadians through fraud lost $520 million. There were 56,352 victims and far too many were seniors. Phone scams accounted for 45 per cent of those losses and fraud via the Internet was 36 per cent.
What can we do? You can register with the Canada's National Do Not Call List. That may stop some calls but won't deter scammers. You can report scammers phone numbers to 411, but the scammers will just change numbers. Many fraudsters will use local number as we are more likely to answer those calls.
If you are one of the 68 per cent of Ontarians that still have landline telephone service make sure your phone has call display. Make it a habit to never answer a phone call if you don't recognize the caller's number. Scammers won't leave a message.
If you somehow connect with a scammer, never provide personal information to any unsolicited callers. If you have lost money through a scam you should call the Barrie Police Service at 705-725-7025. Sadly, less than 10 per cent of all frauds are ever reported.
A final thought: If you no longer have landline phone service, do you still get frequent scam calls on your cellphone?
Terry Paddison
Barrie
