Tip Tuesday with Oxford OPP - Jan 2025

Tuesday, 28 January 2025 at 11:04

OPP Constable Randi Crawford was back in the Heart FM studio for the January edition of Tip Tuesday.

OXFORD COUNTY - The January edition of Tip Tuesday was all about fraud prevention.

Randi Crawford, the Community Safety and Media Relations Constable with the Oxford OPP, shared some tips with Dan and Marcie during their monthly interview on the Heart FM morning show today..

She says there's lot of different scams out there, including the grandparent scam. In this case a fraudster will ask for money over the phone, while pretending to be a friend or a family member.

If you find yourself in a situation where you think you're being tricked, Crawford says you should remember the SCAM acronym.

"S for stop, C for calm yourself, A for assess what's happening, and M for make a decision."

In this case, Crawford recommends coming up with a secret word that only you and your loved ones would know.

"So if you are having someone call you and they are claiming to be a grandson or a granddaughter, once you get over the shock of this person calling you, take a moment, take a deep breath and ask them for the secret word. Probably what will happen, is that person will hang up because they know they've been caught."

You should never answer a phone call from a number you don't know. Crawford says the caller will leave a voicemail if it's important, but you still need to be careful because scam artists will leave voicemails too.

"Sometimes these people are leaving a voicemail saying that that you've won a trip and you need to press 1 for more information or 2 if you're not interested. So people will press one or the other, but with those you just want to delete them all together. You don't want to press anything."

Crawford adds this is a form of click bait, similar to a fraudulent text or e-mail that asks you to click on a link.

If you think you may have been the victim of a fraud, Crawford says there is nothing to be embarrassed about.

"These people are getting really good at being bad. They are learning from all of the techniques that we're using to find them and they're trying to get really clever."

Fraud victims should call police, the Canadian Anti Fraud Centre, and notify their loved ones.

The next Tip Tuesday is scheduled for Tuesday, February 25th and you can submit a question online here.