The money lost due to scams in Alberta may be going up despite the number of victims going down.

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), from January to June this year, there have been more than 1,400 victims of scams, leading to more than $36 million in financial loss.

While the number of victims has dropped from more than 3,000 last year, the financial loss is already more than half of last year’s total of over $55 million.

Calgary resident Sydnie Bourassa feels a lot of anger about these scams and the fact that there are people who can do it without empathy.

“There are stories of people who lose upwards of $80,000. People who are losing their retirement savings or losing their ability to take care of their children,” said Bourassa.

“Sometimes it’s just hard to believe that it’s an actual person on the other side of the phone that’s doing this to you.”

Bourassa lost about $15,000 to a scam during the pandemic, and despite immediately contacting her bank, the police, Service Canada, and an acquaintance she knew who worked in Bitcoin, she could not recover her money.

“I lost pretty much everything that I had in my bank account at the time in a way that wasn’t trackable and wasn’t able to be returned.”

Bourassa said she was woken up in the afternoon by a phone call during a deep sleep with an automated message saying there was a warrant for her arrest.

“That’s when the fear response kicked in, and it took over everything, and that’s what made it so impossible to stop.”

From there, Bourassa was transferred from one person to another while the scammers convinced her to send her information and photos of her ID.

“They kind of gave me the script of how stuff was going to work,” she said.

The scam unfolds

Bourassa was told to combine all her money into one account, withdraw it all in cash, then deposit it into a Bitcoin account using a Bitcoin ATM. While she was doing all this, the scammers were on the phone with her, talking her through each task, preying on her fears and emotions. Bourassa was told that if she hung up the phone, they would send police to her house.

“Instead of making you question what they’re doing, [they] just make you more scared,” she said.

Bourassa said they told her not to trust anyone, to lie, and that secrecy was the best option for her.

“[They said] you can’t trust your friends or family, and you can’t trust your bank,” she said.

“They had told me to tell the banker that I was paying for a new vehicle.”

The next morning, after finding out she had been scammed, Bourassa went back to the bank to see if there was something the bank could do to help.

“It was the same teller. I remember his face when he saw me walk in, my eyes were super swollen. I had barely slept,” she recalled.

“I remember his facial expression of disappointment and sadness,” said Bourassa.

During the scam, Bourassa had not talked to anyone except the bank teller that helped her withdraw her money.

“It’s not their fault. I don’t blame the bank, but they were the one person that I interacted with from the start of the phone call to the end of the evening,” said Bourassa.

“They were probably my one chance at having this stopped and that was kind of disappointing.”

Bourassa was in her early 20’s when she was scammed and had just completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology a few months prior.

Despite losing that much money while having her rent and car insurance due soon, Bourassa said she was fortunate to have family that were able to help with her expenses.

“It breaks my heart that there are people out there that have more to lose than me, that this still happens to them and they can lose everything they have.”

“It just makes me angry. It makes me disappointed in the people that do this,” said Bourassa.

Digital trace disappears with new technology

CPS said recovering funds given away to scammers is difficult and many fraudsters now request gift cards, which leaves no digital trace.

“Once they receive money, it’s quickly dispersed through different accounts, making it difficult to trace,” said CPS.

Despite the decrease in victims and reports in Alberta, scams are getting more sophisticated, some due to AI.

According to CPS, advances in technology have made it easier for romance scams to spread and grow.

“These scams are often run by individuals who manipulate multiple victims at once, using emotional deception to build false relationships,” said CPS.

According to CPS, from January to June this year, more than $1.5 million from at least 30 victims was lost to romance scams in Calgary–slightly more than half of the total in Alberta.

CPS said these scams impact both men and women from the ages of 20 to 90, with the most victims this year being in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

To prevent students from falling victim to scams, SAIT sent out emails in early August similar to those used in phishing scams to their students.

Those who clicked the link were enrolled in a training course to help strengthen their cybersecurity skills.

Phishing scams are a type of scam that has the user sign in to their accounts using an attached link from an email that lets scammers have access to their accounts.

Kate Laverdure, a SAIT senior communications specialist, said phishing remains the top global cybersecurity threat to organizations.

“These training emails are always informed by the type of phishing threats our community is vulnerable to falling victim to and are part of SAIT’s ongoing cybersecurity strategy,” said Laverdure.