At this very moment, there are upwards of 30 online scams active in the Airdrie area and it's everything from online purchases to phony government grants. This is according to the Better Business Bureau scam tracker. 
 
With October being Cybersecurity Awareness Month, dedicated to helping the public learn more about the importance of cyber security, it's important to remember that anyone and everyone can fall prey to hackers and scammers.
 
"Scammers are after primarily two things, they're after your money or they're after your personal information," said Wes Lafortune, the Media and Communications Specialist for the Better Business Bureau, serving Southern Alberta & East Kootenay. "They're after your personal information so they can access your money. So that's the ultimate goal for almost all scammers."
 
Lafortune said that being skeptical and not fearful is what cybersecurity awareness is about.
 
He said that staying safe online means taking precautions such as:
  • Change your password regularly.
  • Use unique passwords.
  • Use two-factor authentication where it's available.
  • Don't post personal information online, including social insurance numbers, home addresses, full names, mother's maiden name your full name, or a pet's name - as many of us use pet or family names as passwords
  • Don't use one password for all of your accounts.
And for those who seem to be stuck in an endless loop of forgetting passwords and then having to reset them, Lafortune said there are two methods for keeping passwords safe and secure.
 
"Many people write it down in a book, they put it in a very secure place. That might be a locked cabinet or somewhere that you feel is secure that other people can't easily access," he said.  "Beyond that, there are commercial programs available that will allow you to change your password for you."
 
But what about those annoying text messages or phone calls? Well, as our parents used to say, there's no such thing as a free lunch, and in the case of fishy phish texts, it's unlikely a random stranger is willing to gift you with cash. 
 
"[If] you get a text out of the blue that somebody is offering you money, that's probably not true, don't click on the link," he said. 
 
And those phone calls supposedly coming from the Canada Revenue Agency? Lafortune said that the CRA will never phone and act aggressively.
 
"They're [The CRA] not going to threaten to send you to jail," Lafortune said. "If you think it's a scammer, don't engage with them, don't get involved in the conversation. Just hang up."
According to Charted Professional Accountants Canda, "In 2019, nearly 45,000 Canadians fell victim to fraud, losing more than $96 million, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre."
 
 
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