Aug. 2, 2021 – The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says they’re on the rise, despite the country beginning to open after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the first seven months of 2020, the centre received 23,655 reports tied to telephone solicitations. This is on track to nearly double compared to 2019, when it received 24,835 reports for the whole year.

“We did see a dip in these calls through April and May, but as things have come back online, we’ve seen a great increase in scam calls,” CAFC’s senior RCMP intelligence analyst Jeff Thomson told Global News.

COVID-19 impacted the number of fraud reports in Canada. Between March 6, 2020 and June 30, 2021, 23,842 cases of fraud were reported in Canada; 21,923 victims and $7.6 million lost.

As of June 30 this year, 40,341 Canadian reports of fraud occurred; 28,517 victims and $105.4 million being lost.