Millennials target of new Vancouver police online fraud campaign

Think seniors are the biggest victims of online fraud? The Vancouver Police Department is looking to squash that assumption with its latest campaign.

In a statement, the VPD announced it has launched #NANAsays, a new campaign aimed at raising awareness of online fraud with millennials. It said it's targetingthat generation because ithas become the largest group of people defrauded online.

According to the VPD, from Jan.1, 2017 to March 21, 2018, people aged 19 through 35 represented almost half of all victims of cybercrime in Vancouver. Of those reported cybercrimes, the VPD said 51 per cent were fraud related, with losses totalling over $1 million.

The VPD explained #NANAsays plays on the unexpected, with fraud-aware Nana texting advice to her millennial grandchild. The campaign will roll out as online advertisements, with different examples of common online fraud.

The VPD said the most common online fraud scamsmillennials fall victim to are:

1. Sale of goods - such as event tickets on sites like Craigslist.
2. Residential fraud - where people pay deposits on apartments and find out it's occupied and not available for rent.
3. Job opportunity fraud - like "work from home" schemes involving the processing of payments, which is actually money laundering.
4. CRA scam - where people receive phone calls advising them to pay the taxes they owe or they will be arrested.
5. Phishing emails or texts - which usually seekconfirmation of personal information, like passwords.

According to Vancouver police, the number of reported cybercrimes has grown 10-fold over the 10-year period from2006 to 2016, from 86 in 2006 to 921 in 2016, almost half of which were fraud-related.SIMILAR]