Online scams are rising in Canada at an unprecedented rate. Canadians lost a record $380 million to online scammers in 2021, up more than double from $165 million in 2020.

These statistics are alarming and in lock step with the broader global trend in which scammers have thrived during the pandemic. 

COVID-19 led to more people working, shopping, and socializing online. This created a tremendous opportunity for criminals – who have become exponentially sophisticated in recent years — to flood cyberspace with fraud. Law enforcement officials in both the U.S. and UK have noted similar increases as seen in Canada over the last several years.

At Social Catfish, we have seen a surge in users to our website from Canada over the last year. To educate people about the current landscape of online scams in Canada, we analyzed data provided directly to us directly by the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre over the last five years from 2017-2021, as well people searches and trends from our Canadian users.

Below we share the insights from our analysis including:

·        A breakdown of which provinces lost the most money and had the most victims.

·        The most common online scams taking place in Canada

·        The most vulnerable age groups.

·        Tips to avoid these scams.

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Scam Losses by Province

Victims in Ontario have lost the most in scams since 2017, a combined $313 million, and they also have the highest per-report loss, just over $3,000 per incident. Compared to scam victims in Newfoundland and Labrador, who lost about $550 per incident, those in Ontario are much more likely to be taken for tidy sums.

Scam Victims by Province

Of the roughly 104,000 Canadian scam victims since 2017 whose province of residence is known, 43 percent were from Ontario, which is by far the nation’s largest province. Because of the huge variation in population from province to province, it’s necessary to adjust figures for differences in the number of residents. Accounting for those changes, the province with the highest scam rate over the past five years is Manitoba.

Canadian provinces by scam victims per 100,000 residents, 2017-2021

Most Common Scams in Canada

The most common type of scam reported in Canada is extortion, accounting for nearly 30 percent of all incidents over the past five years. But that doesn’t necessarily mean extortion is the costliest type of scam.

For example, while romance scams account for only about 2 percent of incidents, they comprise 20 percent of all dollars lost over the past five years, which is the second-highest rate among all scam types.

Romance Scams by Age in Canada

Romance scams are especially costly, as we’ve learned. In 2021, the average loss by victim in Canada was just under $54,000, but people in some age groups were much more likely to lose large sums in romance scams.

People between the ages of 60 and 69 lost the highest amount on average, about $81,000, while those ages 10-19 lost the least, about $2,600 on average.

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Investment Scams: Cybercriminals will offer once-in-a-lifetime opportunities with high rates of return and little risk. The “opportunity” may even have a stunning website but everything on it is fake.