By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
March is fraud prevention month, with many organizations creating awareness and informing the public how crucial it is to stay informed and vigilant as fraud is on the rise.
Nathan Linders, Commercial and Personal Account Manager with Osoyoos Credit Union (OCU) spoke with the Times Chronicle and said “fraud is on the rise, we don’t need to go to Statistics Canada to find that out, all you have to do is look at your voicemails.”
On the BC government’s page on fraud prevention month they note that the scam that cost Canadians the most in 2021 was the investment scam, which resulted in 163.9 million in losses.
In this scam, “fraudsters set up fake but professional-looking investment websites which lure victims into buying phony stocks or cryptocurrency,” it explains.
The second most costly scam was the romance scam, resulting in over $64.6 million in losses. In this one fraudsters create fake profiles on dating websites or social media to have online relationships with people and ultimately ask them for money.
They make these scams more convincing by using stolen photos, psychological manipulation, and sob stories.
Linders explained that often because people get embarrassed, they do not report or find ways to address the situation afterwards. As you can imagine, being the victim of a romance scam, or an investment scam could be embarrassing.
“Nobody wants to hear that they got it wrong. When you have been scammed it’s embarrassing, so a lot of people don’t report it, and a lot of people will actually keep giving them money, in the hopes that in the end it will turn out that they were right in the first place, that never happens,” Linders said.
This points towards our cognitive biases when it comes to these sorts of scams, such as the sunk-cost fallacy. The sunk-cost fallacy describes the tendency to follow through on any endeavor if we have already invested time, effort, or in this case money into it, whether or not the current costs outweigh the benefits.
“I have seen situations where people get milked for a year on these things,” Linders explained. “You just don’t want to face the fact that you have been fooled.”
So people prolong the sunken costs because they think, if only it eventually works out it will all be worth it. They continue to invest in the scam in the hopes that they were right in the first place and therefore never report it.
Linders explained that if it seems too good to be true it probably is. Thus it is crucial to be highly critical and vigilant to prevent getting scammed. But if you do fall victim, do not be embarrassed and report the scam before they are able to do more damage.
Through the OCU fraud prevention campaign they are open every Saturday in March at their branch on Main St. in Osoyoos with a person tending to a table and answering peoples questions.
Linders wants people to know, “the idea here is just to bring a little more awareness to the community.”
They are offering 10-15 minute presentations at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on March 18 and 25, which are free and open to the public.
