Here are the top five scams, frauds for 2024

Online scammer in this undated file image.

Investment and crypto frauds occupy the first place on the list of the top five scams for 2024, according to the Ontario Provincial Police.

The losses associated with investment fraud are “substantial,” acting detective Sgt. John Armit said in a video shared on X.

“You may see an ad online to start investing in crypto. And often you’re communicating directly with fraudsters,” Armit said.

Spear phishing comes in the second place, Armit adds.

“Spear phishing frauds are also known as business email compromise, where a business may click on malware, or there may be an email purporting to be an executive from the company asking for an invoice to be paid in a rush manner, or changing banking information,” Armit said.

In the third place comes the romance scam. Armit says this type of scam has been seeing a new twist.

“The fraudsters are converting the romance fraud victims into investment crime victims by moving money through cryptocurrency,” he added.

Number four is job scams, where the fraudsters use the victims for money laundering, Amit explains.

“With the economy being sluggish and the challenge economically with residents of Ontario and Canada, we’re seeing a massive increase in job scams,” he said.

Finally, there are service scams, which come in multiple forms, including targeting seniors or popups indicating a need to update software.

“It can be either people coming to the seniors’ homes to sign documents for a new air conditioner or what have you and then attach to their mortgage or lien on their house, or the popup scams,” he said.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says there were over 41,000 cases of fraud reported to the agency last year, amounting to a loss of over $554 million nationwide.