Oak Bay police are investigating a sophisticated computer fraud that cost an Oak Bay resident $13,500.
The victim told police they received a phone call from a “bank inspector” from their bank who advised there were two fraudulent charges on their account, Oak Bay Police Department said in its weekly news release.
The suspected scammer, who is believed to be part of a sophisticated scamming scheme, had the resident download AnyDesk – a program scammers illegally use to gain remote access to victims’ electronic devices. Scammers will frequently claim it’s to identify a source of the alleged fraudulent transactions. In this case, the suspect made it appear $7,000 was deposited into the victim’s account. The suspect then instructed the victim to withdraw cash from their local bank branch and buy gift cards totalling $13,500.
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The scammer provided a script for the resident to use when speaking with his bank teller to avoid them spotting the scheme.
The victim then provided the suspect with the gift card numbers and validation codes before becoming suspicious and reporting the incident to police on May 29.
As of March 31, 7,908 people across the nation lost $123 million to fraud, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
Visit antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca to learn more about common scams and ways to avoid them.
Anyone with information on this or any crime in Oak Bay is asked to call police at 250-592-2424 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
