‘Exponential’ rise in scams amid Canada Post strike, holiday shopping

The last few weeks have seen an 'exponential' rise in fraud attempts, says says Octavia Howell, chief information security officer at Equifax Canada.

Canadians face a fresh wave of scams as fraudsters seize on the Canada Post strike to try to trick victims out of their cash.

The last few weeks have seen an “exponential” rise in fraud attempts, ranging from phishing emails to deepfake phone calls, says Octavia Howell, chief information security officer at Equifax Canada.

“Any time there is a major political event, a major strike or anything like that, we’ll see an uptick,” she said in a phone interview.

“Not only is there a Canada Post strike … it’s the holidays.”

Scams related to parcels and deliveries typically tick up in step with online shopping orders this time of year, but the work stoppage at Canada Post has led to even more fraud attempts amid the confusion around shipments, Howell said.

Comprehensive figures on the latest batch of scams are not yet available from Equifax Canada, but the credit bureau’s daily internal updates have marked the rise nonetheless.

Rather than the roughly half-dozen daily consumer fraud reports of previous increases, Equifax Canada’s investigations team is filing up to “87 in one report in one day coming from the same IP addresses,” said Howell.

She called the trend “insidious.”