The cost of fraud exceeds financial loss, victims say

Victim impact

"We've seen deep impacts on victims across the board with all types of fraud now because of how sophisticated scams are getting," says Horncastle. While some scams remain contained to a short, isolated event, Horncastle says that in recent years, the CAFC is seeing scams becoming longer and spanning multiple scam types.

"When you look at job scams for example, that can lead into crypto-investment scams, where they start off by boosting products and then it turns into a crypto-investment scam to move up a level," says Horncastle.

Another example is a 2021 case from Toronto involving the victim of a romance turned cryptocurrency-investment scam. After being befriended by the fraudster on Facebook, the victim was encouraged to invest money in Bitcoin and subsequently lost $355,000. In December 2024, the RCMP, CAFC, and Toronto Police Service, along with other partners, returned $225,000 of the lost funds to the victim.

According to Horncastle scams of any kind can lead victims to experience feelings of betrayal, anger, and sadness, especially if the scam involved an emotional connection such as what happens during a romance scam. For some, this can lead to feelings of mistrust and hopelessness, anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress.

"Even identity fraud can have a huge impact on victims because it affects everything in their life, whether it be their mortgage or trying to get a new car," says Horncastle.

Shame on who

Feeling shame and embarrassment is also commonly reported, and can make victims withdraw from family and friends, further compounding their distress, according to the CAFC 2022 annual report.

Doctor Roberta Sinclair is the manager of the RCMP's Strategic Policy and Research and a specialist in online child sexual exploitation. She's been in the fight against this type of exploitation for more than 20 years. She says people who are victimized and choose to share their experience with someone are sometimes met with comments like, "Well, what did you think what was going happen?" and, "You should have known better."

She says this victim shaming can happen in response to all types of fraud, but it's especially high with sextortion—a form of extortion where a fraudster acquires explicit images of the victim and extorts them into sending money or more explicit images in exchange for not releasing the material to the public.

"They can feel a big degree of, "Why did I fall for that? I'm so stupid." And they didn't fall for it. It's not their fault, it's just the [scammer] is really good at what they're doing," says Sinclair, adding that people need to be careful about the language they use if someone chooses to confide in them.

"Who the person discloses to first is extremely important," says Sinclair. "How that's interpreted, how that's received is critical to their path and their journey into healing."

Horncastle agrees that even using a phrase such as, "it's just a scam" in front of someone who might be in the middle of one can be detrimental.

"It's making them feel like they're not good enough, like they're not very smart for going through with whatever they're going through, and you're kind of discouraging them from discussing it because you're embarrassing them at the end of the day, right?" says Horncastle.

Reporting the problem

The effects of embarrassment and shame are far reaching. They're also thought to be the main reason why only 5-10 per cent of incidents of fraud are reported, according to studies done by McMaster University and Statistics Canada. This indicates the number of Canadians that became victims of fraud in 2024 is likely much higher than the 108,878 total number of reports received by the CAFC last year, says Horncastle.

"Many people don't realize that by reporting a scam, you provide law enforcement with the information they need to stop fraudsters and help prevent others from becoming victims," says Horncastle. "So, it's important to break the stigma around fraud victimization, so we can encourage victims to come forward and without fear of judgment."

Lies exposed

As fraudsters continually change their methods, making it increasingly difficult to identify fraud when it is happening. The CAFC and its partners, including the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Cybercrime Coordination Centre (NC3), and other government partners, are working to uncover new fraud tactics in an effort to prevent more people from becoming victims.

"By exposing these deceptive practices, we aim to empower Canadians to spot fraud before it happens," says Horncastle, noting that the most common tactic used by fraudsters that people should look out for is an imposed sense of urgency.

"So, whether we're looking at merchandise fraud and it's a blowout sale. And if you don't buy it immediately, you're going to miss out on the sale. Or, it could be an investment opportunity, and if you don't invest right away, you're going to miss out on this opportunity to get this huge return. Or, you have to act quickly or else you're going to get arrested. Even with a romance scam, there's an emergency that always comes up where money needs to be sent urgently," says Horncastle. "And the reason they typically do that is because they don't want the victim to have time to think about what's going on."

To learn more about how you can protect yourself visit the CAFC website. If you are a victim of fraud, report it to your local police and to the CAFC online or by phone at 1-888-495-8501. Even if you're not a victim but suspect fraud has been committed, report it anyway. The information provided to the CAFC will help investigations that could be linked, inform the public about new scams and tactics being used, and help prevent others from becoming victimized.