Armed with new digital tools such as deepfakes generated using artificial intelligence, scammers are siphoning increasingly large sums of money out of the Canadian economy each year.Steve Marcus/Reuters
A new coalition of financial institutions, telecoms, technology companies and other organizations is aiming to tackle the increasingly pervasive problem of scams.
The Canadian Anti-Scam Coalition, which also includes government and law-enforcement agencies, is preparing to launch a national scam awareness campaign next month and has several other initiatives under way, including a pilot project exploring how companies across sectors can better share information to stop scammers in their tracks.
The cross-sector group was brought together by Anthony Ostler, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Bankers Association, who started approaching Canadian organizations in the spring of 2024 because he was concerned about the increasing prevalence of scams.
“There are people out there being scammed every day. … It’s scary,” said Mr. Ostler, who is chairing the new coalition and sat down with The Globe and Mail last week ahead of its Tuesday launch.
Armed with new digital tools such as deepfakes generated using artificial intelligence, scammers are siphoning increasingly large sums of money out of the Canadian economy each year.
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Fraud victims reported a total of $647-million in losses to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre last year, up from $577-million in 2023. According to the agency, those figures represent just 5 per cent to 10 per cent of all fraud.
The CBA, which uses data from the anti-fraud centre as well as the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, estimates that Canadians lost between $6-billion and $12-billion to scams last year.
“That’s millions of everyday Canadians being scammed in some form or other, which is just heartbreaking to think. That could be people’s retirement savings or payments for a down payment on a house,” Mr. Ostler said.
The coalition – which has 50 member organizations including Canada’s Big Six banks, its largest telecoms, and tech giants such as Google and Meta – first convened in July, 2024, for a round-table discussion.
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It spent the subsequent months studying best practices from other countries, including Australia, where reported scam losses fell by nearly 26 per cent year-over-year in 2024. A March report from Australia’s National Anti-Scam Centre attributed the decline to cross-sector, public-private initiatives.
The Canadian Anti-Scam Coalition is also exploring measures for removing fraudulent information from the internet, and developing a taxonomy that will make it easier for its members to share information with one another and with law enforcement.
“Everyone tracks their information slightly differently. If we don’t have one version of the truth, it’s really hard for us to better share and triangulate,” Mr. Ostler said.
The Stand Against Scams campaign, which is slated to launch in early October, aims to educate Canadians to prevent them from falling victim to scams. The ads, which will run across various platforms, will be paid for by coalition members, Mr. Ostler said.
The most effective anti-scam programs, according to Mr. Ostler, are those that bring together stakeholders from various sectors. Although banks facilitate the transfer of funds from victims to scammers, they do so at the behest of their customers, he said. A financial institution can ask a customer if they’re sure they want to complete a transfer, but “there’s only so much they can do; everyone has a right to their own money in their bank account,” Mr. Ostler said.
He said a key approach is to seek to prevent scammers from reaching potential victims – for instance, by blocking fraudulent websites, text messages or phone calls. “If you narrow the funnel, if there’s less stuff hitting people, there’s less chance of them being scammed.”
Mr. Ostler said it’ll take time before scams begin to decline in Canada, but he’s confident that the coalition can halt their growth.
“We won’t stop, because the bad actors, they’re never going to stop. What we want to do is, picture Canada having a low-walled garden. We want to put a large wall around the garden of Canada to better protect Canadians,” he said.