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FROM: Southern Georgian Bay OPP Detachment DATE: February 15, 2025

OPP AND CAFC PARTNER TO RAISE AWARENESS OF ROMANCE AND RELATIONSHIP TYPE FRAUDS

(MIDLAND,ON)- Members of the Southern Georgian Bay Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) are continuing to raise the awareness for North Simcoe residents of the various scams that they may encounter on the telephone or online.

Every year around Valentine's Day, fraudsters are on the look-out for unsuspecting victims who are looking for love and/or companionship.

Romance variation

Victims are typically contacted on dating websites or social media, it is common for suspects to use real pictures found on social media of real people (ie. business people, members of the military, family photos), pet photos and hobbies. Fraudsters quickly profess their love to gain their victims' trust, affection, and money. Once a connection is made victims will be asked to switch to a different method of communication such as WhatsApp, Signal and others. This type of fraud relies heavily on victim emotions and may last for months, years, or until the victim has nothing left to give. The fraudsters will never end up repaying the victim and continue to make empty promises while asking for more money.

Common reasons fraudsters request money:

• a personal/family emergency,

• claims they have no access to their existing funds,

• unexpected business expenses, legal expenses or professional fees,

• investing in a new business and they need the victims' help, and

• travel fees to return home.

Some recent variations include the use conversational attacks where fraudsters send random text messages to victims. The messages often read "where are you?", "where have you been?" or something similar. Once the victim responds, a conversation is started and the fraudster attempts to build a relationship with the victim.

Relationship investment fraud

In these cases, fraudsters develop a relationship with the victim and convince them to invest into a fraudulent cryptocurrency platform with the promise of large monetary returns. In fact, fraudsters may even let the victim cash out some of their investment returns only to get them to invest a larger amount. Suspects will "coach" victims on how to invest in their fraudulent crypto currency platforms. Unfortunately, once the victim requests to withdraw their investment, they are unable to do so.

New variation

A newer variation being reported is often referred to as "approval phishing". While "approval phishing" has existed for some time now, more recently this fraud tactic is being adopted by fraudsters engaged in romance and relationship frauds. Suspects develop a relationship with the victims and convince them to invest into crypto, they are then deceived into granting access to their cryptocurrency accounts by those posing as trusted services. After being coached on how to acquire cryptocurrency such as Etherium or Tron, a fake request is sent by fraudsters that appears to come from the crypto service, asking the user to "approve" access to their wallet. By clicking "approve," the individual unknowingly gives control of their funds to the third party. The fake requests closely mimic legitimate apps and services, making them look authentic to the user. In some cases, victims may receive a transfer request asking them to click on a link to accept and victims may unknowingly be providing the "approval" to access their wallet.

Warning signs

Beware of:

• profiles that seem too perfect

• someone you haven't met in person professes their love to you

• a suspect that tries to move communication to a more private or different method of communication (email, text, social media platform, etc.)

• any attempts to meet in person get cancelled or there's always an excuse to not meet-up

• a person who discourages you from talking about them to friends and family

• a suspect acting distressed or angry to force you into sending more money

• poorly written messages or messages addressed to the wrong name

• an individual who "introduces" you to their family on social media to legitimize the relationship

• Someone offering to "coach" you on crypto investing

• Emails appearing to be from your crypto service provider asking you to click on links

• Get rich quick investment opportunities

• Be wary of individuals met on dating sites or social media who attempt to educate and convince you to invest into crypto currency

How to protect yourself

• Don't give out your personal information (name, address, DOB, SIN, banking credentials)

• Don't accept friend requests from people you do not know

• Don't invest your money in platforms provided by people you don't know

• Never send money to someone you haven't met

• Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on your accounts

• Beware of fraudsters asking you to open and fund new crypto accounts, they will direct you to send it to wallets they control - Don't!

• If you have granted a suspect access to your crypto account, follow the OPP's checklist to revoke the token approval

• Learn more tips and tricks for protecting yourself

Anyone who suspects they have been the target of cybercrime or fraud should report it to their local police and to the CAFC's online or by phone at 1-888-495-8501.

CAFC Team

partners@antifraudcentre.ca

Fraud: Recognize. Reject. Report.

#kNOwFraud

Follow us on Twitter (@canantifraud) and Facebook (Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre)

OPP SAVE Team Out on Snowmobile Patrol Over the Weekend in North Simcoe

Riders Still Need to Be Reminded

(MIDLAND,ON) - Riders on the local Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs (OFSC) trails may have noticed the presence of the OPP Central Region SAVE Team snowmobile patrol making the rounds and checking riders and their sleds over the weekend of February 21-23, 2025 here in North Simcoe.

Officers on sleds logged over 30 hours of patrol checking over 375 snowmobilers for equipment, required licences, registration and trail passes where applicable. Officers in vehicles from the Southern Georgian Bay OPP Detachment also conducted reduce impaired driving everywhere (RIDE) programs at various trail heads and conducted trail speed monitoring on the OFSC "C" trail in Tiny Township checking over 50 snowmobilers for signs of impairment in an effort to maintain trail safety.

With a balance between rider education and enforcement in mind, officers deal with issues found on the trails on a daily basis under some extreme weather conditions and welcome your cooperation on the many trails here in North Simcoe.



45 riders were warned with a variety of Motorized Snow Vehicle Act (MSVA) offences which were predominantly failing to have a valid ownership permit on their snowmobile.
19 riders were charged with Motorized Snow Vehicle Act offences ranging from Modified Exhaust Systems, failing to have trail passes to failing to have registration on the snowmobile
No crashes were reported or investigated during this time frame


A Did You Know (DYK) question asked almost daily since the start of the 2024-2025 snowmobile season and we will talk about it again is "do I need to purchase new registration stickers for my sled"?

Short answer is YES!

A look into the Motorized Snow Vehicle Act https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90m44 reveals the following legislation.

Term of permit

(6) A permit that is issued or validated is in force during the period of time prescribed by the regulations. R.S.O. 1990, c. M.44, s. 2 (6).

Registration number to be displayed

(7) Every motorized snow vehicle, unless exempted under this Act or the regulations, shall have attached to or painted on both sides of the cowling in a clearly visible position a sign showing the registration number of the motorized snow vehicle in the form and manner prescribed in the regulations. R.S.O. 1990, c. M.44, s. 2 (7).

Display of evidence of permit

(8) Every driver of a motorized snow vehicle shall display evidence of the issue or validation of the permit on the motorized snow vehicle in the form and manner prescribed by the regulations. 2000, c. 30, s. 2 (2).

Offence for failing to have a permit

(8.1) Every driver of a motorized snow vehicle who contravenes subsection (1) is guilty of an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine of not less than $200 and not more than $1,000. 2000, c. 30, s. 2 (3)

*****To renew your snow vehicle registration you can visit a Service Ontario centre in person or visit the following site online https://cxp.mgcs.gov.on.ca/cxp-web/licence-plate-renewal/information. ******

Snowmobiling is a wonderful sport for most family members to enjoy the great outdoors, but sadly we have to attend incidents involving snowmobiles being operated by persons who are suspected of being impaired, or operating carelessly and are tasked with an investigation that will have long lasting effects on all involved, victims and emergency services personnel.

February 20, 2025
Milton, Ontario

Two Toronto residents are facing criminal charges after allegedly defrauding hundreds of Canadian victims out of millions of dollars. The couple are believed to have used technology that allowed them to conceal their phone number in order to pose as bank, government or police employees to deceive their victims and trick them out of their hard-earned savings.

iSpoof.cc" was a website used by as many as 38,000 subscribers worldwide to make unauthorized phone calls while displaying a caller ID falsely indicating that they were legitimate callers. This particular technology allowed criminals to purchase a subscription in order to use the service to impersonate trusted corporations. The Toronto couple is believed to be among the top 50 most active subscribers in the world.

Ontario RCMP's Cybercrime Investigative Team (CIT) Toronto conducted search warrants on the residence belonging to the suspects which has yielded a trove of seized items including electronic devices. Investigators will conduct analysis on these devices to uncover further evidence of these crimes, which were responsible for de-frauding at least 570 victims out of millions of dollars in Canada. We expect the number of identified victims will increase as a result of the execution of search warrants yesterday.

According to the Cybercrime unit, the couple used a variety of different spoofing, phishing and smishing schemes to target their victims.

Chakib Mansouri (29) and Majdouline Alouah (31) face the following charges:
• Fraud, contrary to section 380(1) of the Criminal Code
• Unauthorized use of Computer contrary to section 342.1 of the Criminal Code
• Laundering Proceeds of Crime, contrary to section 462.31 of the Criminal Code
• Unauthorized Possession of Credit Card Data, contrary to section 430(1.1) of the Criminal Code
• Possessing the Proceeds of Crime, contrary to section 354 of the Criminal Code

Both suspects were arrested and remanded to Maplehurst and Vanier and will appear remotely in Court at 10a.m. on February 21st, Ontario Court of Justice, 2201 Finch Avenue West, Toronto.

The Cybercrime Unit would like to thank the following partners, the London Metropolitan Police, the Dutch National Police, EUROPOL, EUROJUST, Toronto Police, Peel Regional Police, FINTRAC, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), and the National Cybercrime Coordination Centre (NC3) for all the hard work and collaboration provided during the course of the investigation.

Full news release: Ontario RCMP shuts down prolific Cyber-fraudsters | Royal Canadian Mounted Police


Thank you,
CAFC Team
partners@antifraudcentre.ca
Fraud: Recognize. Reject. Report.
#kNOwFraud

Follow us on Twitter (@canantifraud) and Facebook (Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre)
20 février 2025
Milton (Ontario)

Deux résidents de Toronto font face à des accusations criminelles après avoir prétendument escroqué des centaines de victimes canadiennes afin de leur soutirer des millions de dollars. Le couple aurait utilisé une technologie lui ayant permis de dissimuler son numéro de téléphone de façon à se faire passer pour des employés de banque, gouvernementaux ou de service de police afin de tromper ses victimes et de leur soutirer leurs économies durement gagnées.

Quelque 38 000 abonnés du monde entier utilisaient le site Web Ispoof.cc pour faire des appels téléphoniques non autorisés tout en affichant un faux numéro afin de se faire passer pour des appelants légitimes. Cette technologie permettait aux criminels d'acheter un abonnement afin d'utiliser le service pour se faire passer pour des représentants d'organisations de confiance. Le couple de Toronto aurait figuré parmi les 50 abonnés les plus actifs au monde.

L'équipe d'enquête sur la cybercriminalité de la GRC de l'Ontario, à Toronto a effectué des perquisitions dans la résidence appartenant aux suspects, ce qui a permis de saisir une foule d'articles, y compris des appareils électroniques. Les enquêteurs procéderont à l'analyse de ces appareils afin de découvrir d'autres preuves de ces crimes, dans le cadre desquels au moins 570 victimes canadiennes se sont vues soutirer des millions de dollars. Le nombre de victimes devrait augmenter à la suite de l'exécution des mandats de perquisition menée hier.

Selon l'unité de lutte contre la cybercriminalité, le couple a utilisé divers stratagèmes de mystification, d'hameçonnage et d'hameçonnage par message texte pour cibler ses victimes.

Chakib Mansouri (29 ans) et Majdouline Alouah (31 ans) font face aux accusations suivantes :
• Fraude, en violation du paragraphe 380(1) du Code criminel
• Utilisation non autorisée d'un ordinateur, en violation de l'article 342.1 du Code criminel
• Recyclage des produits de la criminalité, en violation de l'article 462.31 du Code criminel
• Possession non autorisée de données de carte de crédit, en violation du paragraphe 430(1.1) du Code criminel
• Possession de produits de la criminalité, en violation de l'article 354 du Code criminel

Les deux suspects ont été arrêtés et placés en détention provisoire à Maplehurst et à Vanier. À 10 h le 21 février, ils comparaîtront à distance devant la Cour de justice de l'Ontario, au 2201 Finch Avenue West, à Toronto.

L'unité de lutte contre la cybercriminalité tient à remercier la police métropolitaine de Londres, la police nationale néerlandaise, EUROPOL, EUROJUST, la police de Toronto, la police régionale de Peel, le CANAFE, le Centre antifraude du Canada (CAFC) et le Centre national de coordination contre la cybercriminalité (CNC3) pour leur travail acharné et leur collaboration tout au long de l'enquête.

Pour lire le communiqué de presse : La GRC de l'Ontario met fin aux agissements de cyberfraudeurs prolifiques | Gendarmerie royale du Canada

Merci,
L'équipe CAFC
partners@antifraudcentre.ca
Détecter, contrer et signaler la fraude.
#déNONcerLaFraude

Suivez le CAFC sur Twitter (@antifraudecan) et sur Facebook ( Centre antifraude du Canada)

FROM: Southern Georgian Bay OPP Detachment DATE: February 15, 2025

OPP AND CAFC PARTNER TO RAISE AWARENESS OF ROMANCE AND RELATIONSHIP TYPE FRAUDS

(MIDLAND,ON)- Members of the Southern Georgian Bay Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) are continuing to raise the awareness for North Simcoe residents of the various scams that they may encounter on the telephone or online.

Every year around Valentine's Day, fraudsters are on the look-out for unsuspecting victims who are looking for love and/or companionship.

Romance variation

Victims are typically contacted on dating websites or social media, it is common for suspects to use real pictures found on social media of real people (ie. business people, members of the military, family photos), pet photos and hobbies. Fraudsters quickly profess their love to gain their victims' trust, affection, and money. Once a connection is made victims will be asked to switch to a different method of communication such as WhatsApp, Signal and others. This type of fraud relies heavily on victim emotions and may last for months, years, or until the victim has nothing left to give. The fraudsters will never end up repaying the victim and continue to make empty promises while asking for more money.

Common reasons fraudsters request money:

• a personal/family emergency,
• claims they have no access to their existing funds,
• unexpected business expenses, legal expenses or professional fees,
• investing in a new business and they need the victims' help, and
• travel fees to return home.

Some recent variations include the use conversational attacks where fraudsters send random text messages to victims. The messages often read "where are you?", "where have you been?" or something similar. Once the victim responds, a conversation is started and the fraudster attempts to build a relationship with the victim.

Relationship investment fraud

In these cases, fraudsters develop a relationship with the victim and convince them to invest into a fraudulent cryptocurrency platform with the promise of large monetary returns. In fact, fraudsters may even let the victim cash out some of their investment returns only to get them to invest a larger amount. Suspects will "coach" victims on how to invest in their fraudulent crypto currency platforms. Unfortunately, once the victim requests to withdraw their investment, they are unable to do so.

New variation

A newer variation being reported is often referred to as "approval phishing". While "approval phishing" has existed for some time now, more recently this fraud tactic is being adopted by fraudsters engaged in romance and relationship frauds. Suspects develop a relationship with the victims and convince them to invest into crypto, they are then deceived into granting access to their cryptocurrency accounts by those posing as trusted services. After being coached on how to acquire cryptocurrency such as Etherium or Tron, a fake request is sent by fraudsters that appears to come from the crypto service, asking the user to "approve" access to their wallet. By clicking "approve," the individual unknowingly gives control of their funds to the third party. The fake requests closely mimic legitimate apps and services, making them look authentic to the user. In some cases, victims may receive a transfer request asking them to click on a link to accept and victims may unknowingly be providing the "approval" to access their wallet.

Warning signs

Beware of:
• profiles that seem too perfect
• someone you haven't met in person professes their love to you
• a suspect that tries to move communication to a more private or different method of communication (email, text, social media platform, etc.)
• any attempts to meet in person get cancelled or there's always an excuse to not meet-up
• a person who discourages you from talking about them to friends and family
• a suspect acting distressed or angry to force you into sending more money
• poorly written messages or messages addressed to the wrong name
• an individual who "introduces" you to their family on social media to legitimize the relationship
• Someone offering to "coach" you on crypto investing
• Emails appearing to be from your crypto service provider asking you to click on links
• Get rich quick investment opportunities
• Be wary of individuals met on dating sites or social media who attempt to educate and convince you to invest into crypto currency
How to protect yourself
• Don't give out your personal information (name, address, DOB, SIN, banking credentials)
• Don't accept friend requests from people you do not know
• Don't invest your money in platforms provided by people you don't know
• Never send money to someone you haven't met
• Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on your accounts
• Beware of fraudsters asking you to open and fund new crypto accounts, they will direct you to send it to wallets they control - Don't!
• If you have granted a suspect access to your crypto account, follow the OPP's checklist to revoke the token approval
• Learn more tips and tricks for protecting yourself
Anyone who suspects they have been the target of cybercrime or fraud should report it to their local police and to the CAFC's online or by phone at 1-888-495-8501.

CAFC Team
partners@antifraudcentre.ca
Fraud: Recognize. Reject. Report.
#kNOwFraud
Follow us on Twitter (@canantifraud) and Facebook (Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre)
-30-
Media Officer
Provincial Constable David Hobson
///relations.fatigue.appraise
T-705-733-5440 E- david.hobson@opp.ca
Social Media OPP Central Region X / OPP Central Region Facebook / OPP Central Region Instagram

Today is International Safer Internet Day, a global initiative dedicated to creating a safer and more inclusive online environment. This year's theme, "Together for a better internet," emphasizes the importance of collaboration in promoting digital safety.

Members of the Southern Georgian Bay Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police are committed to protecting our community online. We encourage everyone to be vigilant against online scams and to educate themselves on safe internet practices. Remember, if something online seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Join us in supporting Safer Internet Day by sharing resources and tips to help others stay safe online.