Anyone with a telephone or email address is a potential victim to a wide range of ongoing mass-marketing scams, but occasionally even the most suspicious of consumers can fall victim.
One Cochrane resident and Calgary business owner, who has requested to remain anonymous for safety concerns, contacted the Eagle with hopes to raise awareness about an advertising scam that she nearly fell for — one that has been flagged as an ongoing scam by a number of Calgary media outlets over the last few months.
In the fall of 2013, the woman was contacted by a man who identified himself as ‘Bill’ from a publication called ‘Police Newsmagazine’.
“He said he works for Calgary Police Newsmagazine and he’s working to help get pedophiles off the street and criminals behind bars,” she explained, adding that ‘Bill’ told her that in addition to distributing the magazine to all Calgary RCMP and police detachments, that all proceeds go back into the local policing community.
The woman said that she would be interested in purchasing an ad (ringing in at $309.75, including GST) and ‘Bill’ said that he would be in touch for payment in February of 2014.
It was not long afterwards that the woman’s eye was caught by a segment on a Calgary news station advising the public to be wary of an ongoing phone scam from a man selling ad space in ‘Calgary Police Newsmagazine’.
The woman decided that if the man, who had not asked for her credit card details, contacted her again that she would politely decline.
By February, ‘Bill’ began calling her again. The calls came from several numbers, including 1-877-159-1739; 1-888-454-3349, ext. 227; and 1-877-460-3444.
Each message, of which the woman saved a few and was able to play for the Eagle, showed growing agitation by ‘Bill’, who never left a last name.
The situation was aggravated nearly two weeks ago when ‘Bill’ spammed the woman’s home fax with around 100 copies of the invoice, which listed her business address and phone number on the fax; he has never called her on any phone number other than her cellphone and the woman is upset that ‘Bill’ obtained so much personal information about her.
The address listed for ‘Police Newsmagazine’ is actually a UPS store in Calgary; the website with the matching logo on the invoice is policenewsmagazine.com.
Despite what he originally told the woman, ‘Bill’ was now saying that his publication was in no way affiliated with any police or RCMP organization.
His last phone call left the woman feeling threatened and concerned, as he began to yell at her to ‘pay her bill’ and swore at her multiple times.
“It leaves you feeling scared,” she said, adding that it was just prior to this call that she had reported the incident to Calgary Police Services (CPS).
Detective Darren Smith with CPS confirmed that CPS is not affiliated with any publication and no monies from any magazine ‘go toward the local policing community’.
Smith said that there have been in excess of 30 Better Business Bureau complaints lodged against ‘Police Newsmagazine’ but said that police are uncertain as to whether this was an illegitimate publication or a telemarketing scam using the name of a legitimate publication and that the matter is under investigation.
“Don’t be pressured into anything — be wary of deals too good to be true or one-time offers,” he said, adding that some telemarketing scams are international and go through countries where police would have limited access.
As technology continues to develop, so do the endless scams and possibilities.
Smith also advised that consumers be aware of documents or emails with grammar or spelling mistakes, inconsistent information or attempts to take credit card numbers over the phone.
Shortly after reporting the incident to police, the woman was visiting an acquaintance at a Cochrane business, sharing her story, when she was advised that ‘Bill’ had been trying to sell advertising to the Cochrane business owner, as well.
The Cochrane business owner, who also wished to remain anonymous, confirmed with the Eagle that a man with the same sales pitch had contacted her, identifying himself as being from ‘Police Newsmagazine’.
“He kept phoning back and trying to speak with me directly, even though my receptionist normally deals with these things.”
Since informing the man that she was aware that he was not affiliated with the police, the man has yet to call back.
“I know he’s not stopping and is continuing to do this,” said the Calgary business owner, who said she wants Cochrane business owners to be aware of this ongoing scam.
According to Daniel Williams, senior call taker supervisor with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, only one to five per cent of victims of mass marketing and identity theft crimes actually report it; of the estimated 60,000 reports made to the centre annually, around 15,000 are victims calling after the fact.
Williams said that consumers must be vigilante about going public whenever possible and that the prevention is best achieved through awareness and education.
“Any information we gather is useful in some way at preventing future victims down the road…Call (these scam artists) anything you will, but stupid they are not.”
Williams also said a lot of scam artists walk a thin line between what is illegal and what is unethical or “legitimate but sleazy”.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is a jointly managed project by the RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police and the Competition Bureau of Canada; visit antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca to learn more.
