If something feels wrong, you're probably right.
This page is free and it always will be. Print it, put it by the phone, give it to a neighbour. You don't have to be a customer — you don't have to phone me at all.
(Or press Ctrl + P on a PC, or Cmd + P on a Mac.)
Three questions that catch nearly all of it
You don't need to understand computers to spot a scam. Almost every one of them fails at least one of these three tests.
1. Who started this?
Did they contact you? A call, a text, an email, a pop-up, a message on Facebook. If the contact came to you out of the blue, treat everything that follows as false until you've checked it yourself, using a number you already had. Real organisations do not mind being called back. Criminals hate it, because the whole scheme depends on keeping you on that one call.
2. Are they rushing you?
Urgency is the tool. Your account will be closed today. The police are on their way. Don't tell anyone, it will compromise the investigation. Your grandson is in a cell and needs the money this afternoon. Nothing real in Canada requires you to act within the hour, and no legitimate person will ever tell you to keep a payment secret from your family. Secrecy is the single clearest sign.
3. What exactly are they asking for?
If it's any of these, it is a scam. There are no exceptions:
- Gift cards — Apple, Google Play, Amazon, Steam. No government, bank or company on earth accepts these.
- Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, or a “crypto ATM”
- Access to your computer, when they phoned you
- Cash handed to a courier who comes to your door
- An e-transfer to “secure” or “protect” your own money
- Your banking password or a code texted to your phone
- Secrecy from your own family
Family Tech will never phone you and ask to connect to your computer.
Nor will Microsoft, Apple, your bank, the police, the CRA, or Bell. Not one of them. Ever. If a caller asks for that, the call is the crime.
The five going around Toronto right now
The pop-up that won't close
A loud warning fills your screen — a virus, a security alert, sometimes an alarm sound and a voice — with a number to call “Microsoft support”. There is no virus. The message is just a web page designed to frighten you, and the number belongs to the criminals.
What to do: don't call the number. Turn the computer off by holding the power button in for ten seconds. Wait a minute, turn it back on, and don't reopen the previous pages. It'll be gone. Nothing has been damaged.
The bank's “fraud investigator”
Someone calls claiming to be from your bank's security team. They already know your name and some details, which is what makes it convincing. There is fraud on your account, they say, and they need your help to catch a dishonest employee — so please move your money to a “safe account”, or withdraw cash and hand it to an officer who will collect it. And please don't discuss it with the branch staff, as they may be involved.
What to do: hang up. Wait five full minutes — scammers can stay on the line and fake a dial tone. Then call the number on the back of your bank card. Your bank will never ask you to move money to protect it, and will never send someone to your door for cash.
The grandchild in trouble
A young voice, distressed, on a bad line: “Grandma? It's me.” There's been an accident, or an arrest, and they need bail money today, and please don't tell Mum and Dad. A “lawyer” or “officer” then takes over the call. Voices can now be imitated convincingly from a few seconds of audio, so trusting your ear is no longer enough.
What to do: say you'll call back, and hang up. Then phone that grandchild on their own number, or phone their parents. Every single time, they will be perfectly fine.
Worth doing this weekend: agree a family password with your children and grandchildren — one ordinary word that nobody outside the family would guess. Anyone who phones in an emergency asking for money has to say it. It costs nothing and it defeats this scam completely.
The CRA, the police, or the border agency
An official-sounding call or a very official-looking email: you owe back taxes, there's a warrant out, your Social Insurance Number has been used in a crime. Pay immediately or be arrested. Sometimes the police number really does appear on your call display — that can be faked in seconds.
What to do: hang up. The CRA does not threaten arrest, does not demand payment by gift card or e-transfer, and does not deal in same-day deadlines over the phone. If you're genuinely unsure whether you owe tax, call the CRA yourself using the number from their website — not the one you were given.
The friendly stranger, and the investment that can't lose
This one is slower and does the most damage. A warm, attentive person appears — on Facebook, a dating site, or even a wrong-number text that turns into a friendship. Over weeks or months they become important to you. Eventually there's a crisis, or an investment opportunity they want to share with you as a friend, usually involving cryptocurrency, with a website that shows your money growing beautifully. It isn't growing. It isn't there.
What to do: the test is simple and it is absolute. Anyone you have never met in person who asks you for money is not who they say they are. And nobody who genuinely cares about you will ever ask you to keep money secret from your family.
This is the one people are most ashamed to report, which is exactly why it keeps working. If it's happened to you, you were targeted by professionals who do this full time. That is not the same thing as being foolish.
If it has already happened
Do these in order, today. Speed matters far more than getting it perfect, and money can sometimes be stopped in the first hours.
- Phone your bank now. Use the number on the back of your card. Tell them exactly what happened and ask them to stop or recall the payment and secure your accounts. Don't wait until morning — most banks have a 24-hour fraud line.
- Disconnect the computer from the internet. If you let anyone connect to it, unplug the network cable or switch off the Wi-Fi. Don't use that computer for banking again until someone has checked it properly.
- Change your passwords — from a different device. Email first, because email is how everything else gets reset, then banking. Use your phone or another computer, not the affected one.
- Report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. 1-888-495-8501, or online. Even if the money is gone. Only a small fraction of fraud is ever reported, and unreported fraud is why this keeps working on the next person.
- Report it to Toronto Police. 416-808-2222 for non-emergencies, or file online. Call 911 only if someone is at your door or you're in danger.
- Tell someone you trust. A son, a daughter, a friend. Not because you need supervising, but because you shouldn't have to carry this alone — and because the shame is what stops people acting fast enough.
The real numbers
Checked in August 2026. These are the genuine organisations — none of them will ever phone you first and ask for access or payment.
Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre
1-888-495-8501 — Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 4:45 Eastern
Report online at reportcyberandfraud.canada.ca · antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca
Toronto Police Service
416-808-2222 — non-emergency, 24 hours
Report online at tps.ca/services/online-reporting. Call 911 if someone is at your door or you feel unsafe.
Your own bank
The number on the back of your card, and nowhere else. Not a number from an email, a text, a search result or a caller. Type or write your bank's fraud number below, then print this page and keep it by the phone.
Nothing you type here is sent anywhere. It stays on this page, on your own screen, and it prints with the page. Close the page and it's gone.
Canada Revenue Agency
What the CRA will and won't do, in their own words: canada.ca — protect yourself against fraud
If your identity may have been stolen
Ask both credit bureaus to put a fraud alert on your file — it's free. Equifax Canada · TransUnion Canada
Consumer Protection Ontario
For problems with a contract or a business, including anything signed at your door: 1-800-889-9768
Not sure whether something was real?
Phone me and describe it. I'll tell you honestly, it takes five minutes, and there's nothing to pay and nothing to sign up for. I would much rather answer a hundred of these calls than have one person find out the hard way.
And if you've already lost money — please phone anyway. Nobody here is going to think less of you. It happens to accountants and retired police officers too.