A 55 year old resident of Hinchinbrooke was the victim of a type of fraud called phishing on February18.
According to the Sûreté du Québec, this kind of fraud consists of creating emails and text messages to reproduce mail from businesses, financial institutions and legitimate government organizations.
These messages sent out to a number of people are intended to trick the recipients into revealing their confidential, personal and financial information.
The individual using this technique will generally be looking for credit card numbers, banking information, social insurance numbers and pass words. Once the individual has this personal information, he or she can use it to assume the identity of the victim or sell it to another criminal.
Anyone who believes they have been a victim of phishing should file a complaint with the Sûreté du Québec.
(Translated by Cathleen Johnston)
