Knowledge Hub
Your safety online is as important to us as keeping you connected. Fraud attempts are rising across Alberta and beyond, and scammers are becoming more sophisticated.
This Fraud Prevention Resource Hub – is your go-to source for trusted information, helpful tips, and tools to keep you, your family, and your business safe from scams.
Phone Calls From Fraudsters Claiming to be selling MCSnet Routers
We have been receiving calls from our customers checking to see if we are making sales calls for MCSnet routers. This is a SCAM! We will not contact you to sell you a router. Router sales are only completed by MCSnet if:
If you are ever in doubt of a sales phone call, please contact us. MCSnet will never ask for credit card information over the phone.
Protect yourself with these essential tips:
Never share passwords, banking details, or account information over the phone, email, or text unless you are certain it is legitimate.
Avoid clicking suspicious links in texts, emails, or pop-ups.
Scammers often create a sense of urgency. Take your time to verify any unusual requests.
Regularly review your bank and internet account activity to detect unauthorized charges or access.
Use a mix of letters, numbers and symbols.
Verify the website or solicitor before giving information.
Enable two-factor authentication with this extra layer of security.
Latest security updates can help prevent cyber criminals from exploiting vulnerabilities.
Protect yourself against malware, viruses, and other malicious software.
Limiting who can see your posts and photos will protect your privacy.
Notify Local Authorities and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre if you are a victim of fraud.
We have noticed that MCSnet users are sometimes being targeted using fake emails and newsletter that look like ours. These emails contain suspicious links that can compromise your account.
Ensure to verify the sender of every email and newsletter received to ensure it is from MCSnet. When in doubt, contact us to help.
Always check back to see updated scams affecting our users.
Helpful MCSnet Resources
We have been receiving calls from our customers checking to see if we are making sales calls for MCSnet routers. This is a SCAM! We will not contact you to sell you a router. Router sales are only completed by MCSnet if:
Anyone can fall to these scams and cybercrimes. If you or someone you know is a victim of fraud, contact your local police service to report the crime and report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre online or toll-free at 1-888-495-8501. If a financial loss did not occur, it should still be reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
If you have information about deceptive marketing practices, report it to the Competition Bureau. Your reports are essential to identify linkages, catch criminals, and prevent further victimization.
Other Helpful Resources
For the latest scam alerts and in-depth advice, visit:
Fraud Prevention Expert Julie Matthews answered some questions from attendees during our Fraud Prevention Webinar, but there were some that we didn’t get to. Julie has graciously offered some answers to these questions.
Yes spoofing is very common with phone numbers, you can no longer trust your call display. Spoofing technology means they can make any name and number show up on our call display that the fraudsters want. To cut down on scam calls you may want to talk to your phone provider and ensure you have “call control” on your line which means any caller has to press a number before the call will go through. This cuts down on the automated scam calls and robocallers.
Often yes, but it really depends on the source of those jokes and images. Only share jokes and images on social media from a source that you trust. Otherwise after you share it, the joke or image may be changed within days to another image selling a product or running a rental scam where they encourage others to click a link. This link may contain malware/viruses or take your friends and family to a fake website and prompt them to enter personal or financial info.
It is more common to receive a phone call about a compromised credit card in my experience. But before trusting a call or an email I take their info and then hang up and look up the number myself on the back of my credit card and call. This will verify whether the card really has been compromised.
Thank you for sharing this. Yes, scammers love to pretend to be a family member in trouble.
Thank you for sharing what happened to you. Yes, scammers create many fake websites that are very convincing.
You should change the passwords on all your email addresses and enable two factor authentication to make it more difficult for them to hack your email again. Contact your contacts through another email address or by text and advise them that your account has been hacked and not to trust any strange emails or messages from you containing links or asking for money. If you have any banking info in any of your emails ensure you contact your bank as well to see if there has been suspicious activity. They may wish to put an alert on the account.
This is usually not real, and often a scam. Never call the number on the pop up or click on any links in the pop up. Simply shut down your computer. If you did call the number or click on the link you may want to take your device into a repair shop to ensure no harmful and malicious software has been downloaded onto your device.
Thank you for the suggestion. I do actually show that step by step in many of my in person presentations especially to seniors. Unfortunately it is difficult to cover all of the scams and tips I would like to in a shorter webinar or session.
To find out when Julie is presenting, visit her website and follow her on social media.
