Police said that the latest hike in financial and officer impersonation scams is not only compromising the bank accounts of victims, but potentially also the level of trust that residents have toward local law enforcement.
In a news release posted on June 18, the Calgary Police Service (CPS) warned of an uptick in scams involving the imitation of officers and shared the tools community members should employ to protect their sensitive information.
Originally, the fraudulent call scam was announced on March 20, and CPS said that perpetrators were calling victims from a seemingly legitimate caller ID and asking for financial information and money while pretending to be an officer.
Then, on March 26, CPS said that the second scam involved perpetrators pretending to be bank employees, saying the recipient’s debit card had been compromised. They would then request the victim’s home address and PIN to replace the card, only to drain their funds instead.
Since then, CPS said that the scamming situation has become increasingly severe.
“Over the last two months, scammers have evolved their tactics and are using elements from both scams to continue to defraud Calgarians,” read the release.
Between January and June of this year, CPS stated that residents have reported getting upwards of 30 calls from phony officers, which has contributed to a total loss of more than $43,000.
Staff Sgt. Peter Duchnij said that the CPS’s Economic Crimes Unit is responsible for investigating scams such as these, and that bank and officer impersonation scams are not unique. However, he said that the recent combination of the two is alarming.
Losing public trust is a major concern, says CPS
According to the Calgary Police Commission’s 2022 Citizen Satisfaction Survey, only 77 per cent of respondents expressed that they trusted the CPS’s operations. Duchnij said that as a result of these scams, he does not see the perspective of residents improving.
“That lack of trust is going to be a huge issue, especially going forward,” he said.
Duchnij said that banks and law enforcement are institutions that people are supposed to trust. But when someone is the victim of a scam involving officer impersonation, he said that they will become skeptical, and that this could unconsciously hinder the way justice is executed.
“That person just may not feel that the police, in general, are trustworthy,” said Duchnij.
“So they’re not going to report that crime, or they’re not going to report that one incident, because they had a negative experience because somebody posed as a police officer.”
For the most part, he said that perpetrators of the scams are pretending to be officers from a specific district, which is supported by the name displayed on their forged caller ID. But other times, Duchnij said that they are pirating the identity of a real officer, and that this warrants CPS staff being cautious about their online presence.
“The good and the bad about information that’s being shared on the internet is sometimes…people want to use it in vain,” he said.
Should these scams continue to trend, Duchnij said that he foresees the confidence residents have in their police services worsening. To rekindle this, he said that the CPS will further turn to traditional and social media to inform and engage with community members.
“The Calgary Police Service wants to really ensure that people are safe, and the only way to do that is by building confidence and trust,” said Duchnij.
CPS said that their officers will never ask for banking information over the phone, and recommended that residents confirm the identity of someone claiming to be an officer by calling the non-emergency line at (403) 266-1234.
Victims of financial fraud are encouraged to report the incident using the same phone number or online via Crime Stoppers.
