Canada CSA Warns the Public of Scammers Imitating Well-Known Financial Companies

Fazzaco learned that the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), the council of the securities regulators of Canada’s provinces and territories, is warning the public about scammers who claims to represent large, well-known financial companies. 

Recently, the CSA has noted an increase in the number of scams involving the use of professional looking electronic brochures and other marketing material, designed to deceive Canadian investors into visiting “spoofed” websites.

The scam provides investors with high quality brochures and other investment documents that appear to have been produced by easily recognizable banks, insurance companies, mutual fund companies, etc. These documents aim to direct investors to “spoofed”” websites and phone numbers set up by the scammers. The fake websites look nearly identical to the real company’s site.  Calls to the phone numbers provided typically reach a scammer who pretends to be an employee of the real company. Investors are then usually instructed to send funds via wire transfer.

The CSA encourages investors to verify contact information directly, watch for errors and misspellings, compare and confirm websites, avoid unusual payment methods, check registration, get independent, professional advice.