The e-mail arrived during a wintry spring (“spring”) break road trip through southern Ontario: Changes have been made to your Aeroplan account, it informed me.
Uh-oh.
I had not made any changes. But someone had made off with almost all the points I’d collected through the hard labour of flying economy back and forth across the continent. They had been spent, the e-mail told me, at the Aeroplan eStore.
I’m not sure what my identity thief bought – sunglasses? A cordless vacuum? An Air Canada spokesperson told me cybercriminals typically redeem the points for something they can use immediately before the theft is discovered. (Something to think about next time I search “brand new” on Craigslist, looking for a bargain.)
As a graduate of several online workplace safety and security seminars, I pride myself on not falling for the numerous scams aimed at separating me from the little money I have. It happens with increasing frequency: texts offering me my tax refund, or warning that my credit card has been compromised, or robocalls from “Amazon.”
And almost daily I receive a Facebook friend request from a handsome gentleman, always single, often a widower, who looks about my age and is sometimes pictured with a puppy, or on a boat, or with other indications of wealth, and the ability to love and commit.
The fake romance schemes – which often lead to pleas or pitches for money, either for help or for an investment – are so concerning that Richmond RCMP recently sent out a news release, warning they had cost people in Richmond $16.64-million since the beginning of 2023. The detachment said these “long con” scams – sometimes the victim is courted or groomed for months – are commonly referred to as “pig butchering,” as victims are “fattened” with false promises of profit only to be financially “slaughtered.” Nice.
The victims are left devastated, and not just financially. They are humiliated. Maybe even heartbroken.
That’s just one of more than 30 types of schemes documented by the RCMP’s Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. It processed more than 63,000 reports last year, with $569-million lost. Already, in the first three months of this year, $123-million has been reported lost to fraud.
The true number is probably much higher than that, as only five to ten per cent of victims report, the centre’s Jeff Horncastle told me. “The dollar loss to Canadians is in the billions.”
In its 2023 report, The State of Scams in Canada, the Global Anti-Scam Alliance called what is happening a “digital epidemic.” Its survey of 989 Canadians found 75 per cent come across a scam at least once a month.
Aeroplan, like so many online entities, has seen an increase in this kind of activity. In virtually every case, the spokesperson told me, it’s because a customer’s password and log-in credentials were compromised elsewhere.
My loyalty points theft occurred toward the end of what I have now learned was Fraud Prevention Month in Canada. It’s considered identity theft, because my personal information was compromised.
People often don’t report this stuff, not just because it’s embarrassing, but because they think it’s trivial. Like most people, I just called Aeroplan and waited for the points to be reinstated. It didn’t even occur to me to report it to the police or anyone else.
Others don’t report because they’re not up for being victim-blamed and told they may have done something wrong, like created a weak password or clicked on something they shouldn’t have – maybe when they were half-asleep, and alarmed. After what they’ve been through, they don’t need a finger-wagging.
Allure and urgency are two key tools these scammers use. If you don’t act now, this deal will disappear – or your account will be compromised, or your loved one will be in trouble.
Scams are only going to get more sophisticated. They can already look like they come from legit sources, right down to the logo. There are entire fake websites set up to look like real ones.
So this isn’t about victim-blaming – it’s about protecting ourselves. We also have a responsibility as parents. There has been a concerning increase in sextortion scams, which are devastating, and not just financially. Talk to your teens. And tweens.
“Our goal isn’t to get Canadians paranoid,” Mr. Horncastle said. “There’s a fine line between being paranoid and not doing anything. Just being safe and knowing what to watch for.”
What happened to me was an extremely minor inconvenience. It feels nowhere near as creepy a violation as when someone broke into my house with five of us sleeping upstairs and drove off with our stuff in my car. Still, someone pretending to be me using the internet to steal from me, even if I got it back, is distressing. And digital theft can have far more serious consequences. For many Canadians, it already has.
Marsha Lederman