The OPP's Serious Fraud Office has launched a new website and victim portal to try and help combat fraud and assist those who may have fallen victim to one.
Detective Constables Lisa Cruz and Erin Fraser say that fraud is becoming an all too familiar problem for so many, especially with the internet.
Fraser says fraudsters are always adapting and are even reaching us on our phones, and that requires some more attentive and cautious practices from all of us.
"So we definitely have to watch out for that. We need to make sure we know who the sender is of emails. Anything that's unsolicited, treat it as suspicious. On social media, if you see an ad for something, go and find that information on your own, don't just click on links without knowing what it is your clicking," Fraser said.
Detective Constable Cruz notes that one thing she always tells people is to slow down, and take stock of unsolicited messages or visitors to your door and really look into the situation before clicking away or agreeing to anything.
"Really look at the email addresses, they often appear legit but they're often off by a couple letters. If something seems to good to be true, it probably is, right? So just really slowing things down and also sharing things you're sent or presented with with a family or friend, and getting their opinion on it, that's always a great idea, to get another perspective or set of eyes on something," Cruz emphasized.
The new OPP Serious Fraud Office website, as Detective Constable Fraser shares, is a handy resource in terms of learning about and hopefully preventing fraud instances, including outlining some of the major common frauds that have been seen across Ontario.
"Some resources so if you have come across a fraud, what are your next steps? So a big one is not really knowing where to go and this explains it step-by-step, so collecting all your information that's been involved in the fraud, to reach out to your local police service, as well as the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre," Fraser pointed out.
Detective Constable Cruz says that the new victim portal will help guide any victims of fraud through each necessary step regarding reporting and allowing the OPP victim liaison to help.
"They're gonna be able to easily communicate with the large number of victims that we have in our cases, and it's gonna be easy for them to share updates, information and resources to them that are specific to their areas that they can utilize. Just making it really easy to access for victims to use on their own time," Cruz added.
The new OPP Serious Fraud Office website has loads of resources for identifying and protecting yourself from fraud. That can be found at sfo.opp.ca. The new victim portal can be found there, too, and provides critical next steps for anyone who thinks they may have been a victim of fraud.