Julie Matthews presents fraud prevention tips at The Hamlets Red Deer. (rdnewsNOW/Ashley Lavallee-Koenig)

By Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

AI HAS "SUPERCHARGED" SCAMS

Anyone can be a scam victim: Keep yourself safe, this Fraud Prevention Month

Mar 5, 2025 | 5:17 PM

Anyone can be a scam victim.

That’s the message Julie Matthews, a Fraud Prevention Educator and board member of the Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association, urgently tries to communicate in presentations like the one she made at The Hamlets Red Deer on March 5.

“I believe there is a scam out there for everyone, it’s just a matter of which one’s going to work on you. Is it a shipping scam? Is it a grandparent scam? Is it an investment scam? They’re coming at us from all sides and all angles, so I really think anyone can fall for a scam,” she said.

March marks Fraud Prevention Month and this year’s opening theme is relationship scams, which Matthews shared tips on how to identify and prevent.

These can include romance, grandparent and celebrity scams, or any situation where a personal relationship is used to manipulate an individual. Matthews is particularly passionate about spreading the awareness of romance scams as the embarrassment factor can lead to serious consequences.

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“I’ve talked to families where a loved one committed suicide after falling for a romance scam. I’ve talked to people who have never been the same and never financially recovered after falling for one — and they never told a soul about it,” she explained. “If those people don’t come forward and feel like they can talk to police, or even their family and friends, then the scammers are winning.”

When it comes to romance scams, Matthews warned that some fraudsters are in it for the long haul, communicating with victims daily for months at a time before asking for a penny.

“I think anyone can fall for romance. I definitely have seen it with all age groups, I just think the tactics are a bit different,” said Matthews. For seniors, she said widows are often targeted with Hallmark-worthy romantic messages, while youth tend to suffer from sextortion by adults posing as another youth.

To mitigate your chances of ending up in a situation like this, Matthews suggested using tools like reverse image search to check if their photos belong to any other accounts. You should also be suspicious of individuals who seem too perfect or fall in love too quickly, live or work outside of Canada and are consistently unable to meet in person or video chat.

Even a video, however, should be taken with a grain of salt given the AI technology that is now accessible.

Matthews said AI has “supercharged” the scamming industry, giving fraudsters the power to sound like a loved one in distress or appear as a celebrity who knows your name and has a message just for you.

While each kind of scam has its own identifiers and steps to take to protect yourself, Matthews said the following tips are useful in any situation:

• Think before you click: Links can install malware or viruses onto a device or take you to a fake website that would steal your information.
• Verify and identify: If you get a phone call or any other kind of communication from a bank, service provider, or loved one, call that person or institution yourself to verify it’s legitimate.
• If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
• Don’t share personal or financial information.

Matthews also encouraged scam victims to speak up and report their experience to the police.

“I think if more victims speak out and share their stories then it’s going to be a bit of that ripple effect or that domino effect, where if someone else is brave enough to share either story, then other people will as well,” she said.

Just because a scammer may be located overseas doesn’t mean there’s nothing the RCMP can do, she elaborated. There could be a local connection, such as a money mule, that RCMP could pursue.

She added, talking to your children, parents and grandparents about scams could help alleviate some of the stigma surrounding victims and potentially prevent an incident like this happening to your loved ones.

Matthews was hosted by the Central Alberta Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Network, a non-profit providing life-long support to individuals with FASD, and their caregivers.

Julie Nanson-Ashton, executive director of the Network, said it’s particularly important for them to protect their clients from fraud as they tend to experience challenges with social cues and communication, making them more susceptible to manipulation tactics.

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