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Be vigilant; scams are everywhere

There are more and more ways scammers are trying to part you and your money

There are plenty of scams out there and Kimberley resident Mike Honeyman would like to make you aware of one he recently got caught up in.

This one is a change of address scam. A crook changes your address so that all your mail gets diverted to them. They can steal whatever information they need before the victim notices something is wrong.

More commonly, the scammer has already stolen the victim’s identity and arranges for credit card bills taken out in the victim’s name to go to another address.

Honeyman says that this week, his parents, for some reason he doesn’t understand, received a notice from Canada Post saying that his name, coupled with their address had a change notice.

“I dug around and found out the change had been applied for online,” Honeyman said. “All our mail was going to go to an address in Ontario.”

He has been working with the anti-fraud people, he says.

“There was activity on my credit, people trying to apply for credit under my name. If my parents hadn’t seen that notice... I don’t think they got anything, but it could have been bad.”

Honeyman did speak to the police, but was told many of these scams originate out of the country and were hard to track.

“It really is about being vigilant,” he said.

 



Carolyn Grant

About the Author: Carolyn Grant

I have been with the Kimberley Bulletin since 2001 and have enjoyed every moment of it.
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