Fraud prevention month highlights business scams

The second week of fraud prevention month in Canada targets business scams and frauds.

Business scams are the most common of the face-toface frauds reported according to the Medicine Hat Police Service, with these scams occurring when people canvas neighbourhoods looking to complete a service but require payment beforehand, or scammers do door to door fundraising for an illegitimate purpose.

Police caution residents when hiring someone to complete work at their homes, they should ask questions regarding past work, ask for references or a website. They say professional contractors will have no issues providing this information along with photos of their work.

They also says residents should ask for a quote from multiple businesses and take notice if one is significantly cheaper than the other as it could be the indication of a potential scam.

Police also say anyone hiring someone from an online resource should exercise caution and should never offer upfront payment for online hirings.

“Online communities can be an excellent place to locate a potential service provider, but always meet with the contractor in person and go through the proper steps to verify their credentials before hiring them to complete any work,” the MHPS release says.

They also say real estate fraud victimizes people. One scenario of real estate fraud they highlight is scammers online selling property located out of the country under promise of high revenue that ultimately turns out to either not exist or the scammer disappears.

Another type of real estate fraud involves a scammer listing a house on social media for sale or rent and ultimately, after a deposit is paid without a walk through, the victims arrive at the address of their newly acquired property learning the homeowners never listed the property, the victims have no home to move into and their deposit is lost.