Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has received nine reports of text phishing since March 1
Elizabeth Haddock was suspicious when a text message Sunday directed her to verify her eligibility for the “Canadian Bread Class Action settlement before April 1st.”
She had doubts based on the 902 area code, but she still clicked the link because she had signed up for the settlement months earlier and was expecting a payout soon. The link sent Haddock to a website that asked her to fill out a form to claim her share, which it indicated was $182.
“It looked so legitimate,” Haddock told CBC News on Monday. “It mentioned facts about the price-fixing issue, and the rebate, and walked you through the steps.”
But once the form asked for Haddock’s credit card information to process her refund, she realized it was likely a scam.
“That was a major red flag for me,” said Haddock, 56, who lives in Mono, Ont., northwest of Toronto. ”But I’m sure that some people will fall for it.” Haddock is one of two people who reached out to CBC News over the weekend pointing to the texts they’d received about a $500-million settlement in a class-action lawsuit related to the industry-wide price fixing of bread, suggesting they may be a scam.
“This is fraud,” confirmed Jay Strosberg of Strosberg Wingfield Sasso LLP, the law firm that filed the class-action suit in Ontario.
He said the firm is “actively working” with with the RCMP and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) about the issue. The CAFC told CBC News it has received nine reports of the phishing text message since March 1, all of which ask victims to provide their name, address, date of birth and credit card or debit card information.
Four of those reports indicate the credit card information was compromised, the CAFC spokesperson said.“We generally advise that we only receive five to 10 per cent of fraud reports from Canadians, but it’s much lower when looking at phishing specifically,” the CAFC said. “It’s safe to say that nine reports is only a small percentage of what is actually circulating.”
Source: cbc.ca/news/canada/
