By Ben Proulx News Staff
With RCMP detachments throughout the province taking part in Fraud Prevention Month throughout March, Strathcona County RCMP are emphasizing certain scams that have affected Sherwood Park residents more than others.
This week, a focus has been placed on telephone and door-to-door canvassing for false charity fundraising campaigns.
Const. Wally Henry, media liaison with Strathcona County RCMP, said it’s a scam that has faced county residents on a consistent basis for an extended period of time, but doesn’t seem to be disappearing.
“It seems like it’s always around,” he said.
“We’ve let the public know through presentations we do in the community, but it really comes down to the person being approached and knowing without question that whoever is calling them or corresponding with them is doing so on a legitimate basis.”
Henry said a possible tip could be the charity initiating contact, and that residents should be particularly careful in those situations.
“If the contact’s initiated by the person representing an organization, by and large there are problems that come along with cold calls at the door or telephone calls or e-mails requesting money for legitimate causes,” he said.
According to Henry, one of the main methods is to tug at the heart strings of those being asked to donate, with situations having arisen following the earthquakes in Japan and Haiti.
“People almost have a sense of duty or obligation to help others in need,” he said.
The crimes can also be opportunistic, according to Henry, with certain times of the year seeing more illegitimate canvassing than others.
“It’s not uncommon for us to have it happen during the Christmas season when people are sometimes in more of a charitable or giving mood,” he said.
“That’s when we saw the scam with the Mustard Seed organization. It just seems like it’s always out there.”
Most recently, Park businesses faced a scam in which they received phone calls or e-mails asking for donations to the RCMP’s DARE program, which educates children and teenagers about drug use.
Henry said people should be weary of these sorts of claims, as RCMP never seek individual donations for these sorts of programs through telephone or e-mail canvassing. Similar scams are now appearing as well.
“I just had some paperwork dropped off to me by a local resident requesting money for some police-based program,” he said.
“I’m in the process of trying to ascertain the legitimacy of it. Anybody who has any questions about things like that should let us know or drop things off at the detachment.
“If there’s anything to it, we will let the person know, but either way, it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Similar scams via e-mail or over the Internet are also becoming a growing problem, according to Henry, who said people can be more easily fooled through certain manipulations that can be done by online scams.
“If the criminal can manipulate the correspondence to make it look legitimate, whether that’s through using official logos or a letterhead to make it look like it’s a legitimate charity, people can be fooled that way as well,” he said.
“If you are approached and you do feel that you want to make a donation, do it through other means. Contact the charity directly. Go in and see if they are canvassing.”
At the end of the day, everything comes down to either being right or wrong, and Henry is taken aback by those wishing to make gains with the cover of charity.
“To exploit the misfortunes of people for financial gain is pretty low and unscrupulous,” he said.
“I think that, really, for as much as people want to do the right things and help out, it’s really incumbent upon them to verify the story of where their money’s going and who’s asking for it.”
Anybody who suspects to have been a victim of any fraudulent activity is asked to contact Strathcona County RCMP at 780-467-7741.
ben@sherwoodparknews.com,
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