Always near the top of scams targeting seniors are Financial Services Scams. These vary from scammers pretending to be a bank, a mortgage company etc, to an investment scheme promising you to make high returns on your investment.

Either way, the end goal for the scammer is to get your money. Here we will break down the various types scams, and some things you can do to help protect yourself.

Investment Scams

Scammers lure investors with promises of high returns, often using fabricated investment opportunities or fake celebrity endorsements

Debt Relief Scams

Unregulated debt advisors may promise to eliminate your debt but charge excessive fees or encourage you to stop communicating with creditors, leaving you worse off. 

Impersonation Scams

Scammers impersonate banks, mortgage companies, insurance companies, debt collection companies etc, to obtain personal information or money

Double Dip Scam

In this scenario, the scammer has got to you once, and was successful. This time they come back and tell you that some of your initial investment has been lost and they have a plan to help regain your losses and make even more money – for a small investment, again.

Fake Relationship Scam / Romance Scam

This one is hard to hear, but happens all the time. This scam involves you getting pretty close with somebody only to have them tell you, that they are dire need of financial help. They have hit a rough patch, have to pay off a loan etc. There is always a sob story, and a lot of seniors lose a lot of money this way every year. Feeling loved and wanted is so horrible when it is used against you and you end up used, and broke.

Work From Home Scams

This one you see on Facebook all the time, always with comments disabled only method to reach them is through direct message. A company will typically offer a job with high income, but low hours that you can set yourself. There isn’t much information given, but once you connect with them, the job requires you to pay a fee first to get setup, for training, for supplies, or simply to apply for the job.

Overpayment Scams

This is where the scammer sends you a cheque, but it is for too much. They say that they made a mistake, and get you to deposit the cheque and then send back the difference. Then the cheque bounces and you are out of the money that you sent back.

Signs of a Financial Services Scam

• Demands for immediate payment (pay immediately, often using threats or urgency)
• Promised High returns for low risk
• Claims this is a hot tip or insider information
• Investment dealer is not registered to sell investments / not registered with the provincial securities regulator (required in Canada)
• Requests for sensitive information (may ask you for your SIN, bank account details, Credit Card information or passwords
• Unrealistic promises
• Pressure to make quick decisions, no time to investigate
• Unusual payment methods (like gift cards, cryptocurrency or prepaid credit cards)
• Requests for confidentiality (don’t tell your friends and family about this amazing deal scam)
• Be careful of hot tips and investment opportunities from friends too, they might be caught in a scheme where they have been told they will make money if they recruit more friends (a pyramid scheme / multilevel marketing)

How to Protect Yourself

Pause, take a moment and think of the 4 P’s (link here), also remember these old adages

“Nothing in Life is Free”

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”

 “There’s nothing more expensive than free.”

• Don’t give out personal information (including banking or credit card details)
• No reputable business will deal with prepaid credit cards, don’t do this
• Asking you to keep quiet about it is a huge red flag, they don’t want your family to tell you that this is a scam
  
  

The scammers keep doing these scams because they work, the deals sound amazing and they are hard to pass up, don’t take the risk, there is no reward coming your way