Josh Gluck says he thinks many people are too embarrassed to report that they’ve been victims of fraud.
Gluck, an officer with the Grenville County OPP detachment, spoke with MyKemptvilleNow.com about how scammers have impacted the region.
“If you’re assaulted and robbed of your money, victims don’t have to participate in that,” Gluck explains. “It’s just a malicious actor coming and violently robbing them of their money. I think, with fraud, there’s that element of participation where, at least for some portion of the duration of the offense, you’re actually part of it.”
The Grenville County OPP detachment is running a “fraud team” pilot program this year, with specially trained officers focusing on investigating these cases.
Gluck says part of what the team does includes trying to help erase the stigma surrounding reporting fraud, including by telling his own story.
“When I do these local presentations, I frequently tell this story about how I was almost convinced to enter my credit card information in what I thought was a UPS delivery site,” Gluck says, “because the stars just aligned for the fraudster. They sent me an email from a fake UPS site on the exact same day I was expecting a delivery with an item from Amazon.”
He says telling the story helps people understand that anyone can be a victim of fraud.
If you think you’ve been a victim and want to report it, Gluck says you should call the OPP’s non-emergency line or reach out to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.