Phone caller claiming to be your banker might be a scammer

RCMP in Kelowna look to raise awareness about a scam that could be on the rise in the Central Okanagan. The scam is being named the “Bank Investigator Scam,” according to the Canadian Anti Fraud Centre website.

The CFAC has received increased reporting from victims that have been misled by scammers who portray themselves to be representatives of financial institutions.

The victims are called on their landline phones and made aware of a nonexistent suspicious charge, often times for an online purchase, processed on their personal credit card.

The victim is then asked to produce a credit card number to cancel the fictitious transaction.

“The scammer will then pretend to transfer the victim to an alleged investigator,” says RCMP Cpl. Jesse O’Donaghey, spokesman for the Kelowna RCMP. The scam artist may even get the victim to call the credit card centre number of the back of the card, but will will remain on the line and in fact direct the victim to another scam artist who extracts even more personal information.”

In some cases, victims have been convinced to transfer their funds to an external bank account to safeguard their funds until the investigation into the matter is complete, or victims grant these criminals full remote access to their computers to ‘continue’ their investigation.

Criminals are known to use call-spoofing technology, in which a fake phone number will show up in your caller ID.

RCMP in Kelowna have been made aware of these scamming attempts locally, but have no cases on file yet.