There were nine complaints of scams or telephone fraud reported to Weyburn police this past week, which is a lot for this city, according to Deputy Cheif of Police Rod Stafford. He said not only do they continue to hear about the same old scams, including the latest CRA scam, but a couple of new scams are being reported as well.

"It certainly is a lot for one week and we've discovered, not only within Weyburn but within the province and the country, that these things are very underreported so when we have nine reports we're pretty confident that there's many more instances that have happened within the city that for whatever reason people have chosen not to pick up the phone and call us," shared Stafford.

Stafford said one such scam reported this past week involves an email from someone who is making a threat of exposure.

"The person says they've hacked into your computer. They're aware you have some sexually explicit material on there, usually involving yourself. So, like, you've videotaped yourself committing some kind of sexual act or whatever and threaten to send it out to everyone on your contact list if you don't pay a considerable amount of money."

He said it's the second report of such the police service has received in the past six weeks. Neither of the women reporting the scams responded to the emails, nor did they report having any such videos or photographs on their computers, which instantly helped them identify the email threat as a scam, said Stafford.

"So they were not victimized," explained Stafford. "But if you had some questionable content on your computer in that regard we're not sure whether they are actually able to hack and might have sent it on or whether it was just an out-and-out bluff."

Stafford said they continue to receive reports of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) scam where potential victims are asked for their social insurance number or money.

Another new type of scam reported this week to Weyburn police involved asking people to pay fees to collect a prize or lottery money.

"The state of the law in Canada is you don't have to pay anything to collect legitimate winnings from a lottery or anything like that so as soon as somebody says you owe us shipping or you owe us taxes or you owe us administration fees in order to collect lottery winnings prize that's an automatic red flag that it's a scam."

 

Full report from the Weyburn Police Service:

July 9th

- The Weyburn PS received a complaint regarding a break and enter to an apartment. The matter is still under investigation.

July 10th

- The Weyburn PS received a complaint regarding a family related domestic assault. The matter is still under investigation.

July 11th

- The Weyburn PS received a complaint of a person intending self-harm. The person was located and was transported to the hospital for assessment.

- The Weyburn PS are investigating a report of the theft of lawn ornaments from the 700 Block of Duncan Drive.

July 12

- The Weyburn PS are investigating the theft of 2 bicycles. One is described as a SITS brand with gold and black handlebars. The second is described as red BMX style with black pegs and a raised seat.

- The Weyburn PS are investigating a report of a collision between a vehicle and a commercial building. No injuries were reported. There was minor damage to the vehicle and significant damage to the building. The matter is still under
investigation and charges are pending.

July 13th

- The Weyburn PS received a complaint regarding the well-being of an individual. As the result of following up on this concern an adult male person was arrested without incident and has been charged with Care & Control of a vehicle while impaired by a drug. He will be making a Court appearance in the future.

Over the past week the Weyburn PS received 9 complaints of online scams or telephone frauds;

- An email from someone alleging that they have accessed your computer and discovered self-incriminating pornography on it and threatens to release the videos if money is not paid;

- A scam where the purchase of iTunes is required to pay a certain debt;

- A scam from CRA where they ask for your Social Insurance Number

- A text message scam demanding money;

- A lottery winning scam where you have to provide certain information or fees to collect the prize;

- A bank scam where a deposit was mistakenly made to an account then asking for a withdrawal of the money be sent;

- A scam apparently from PayPal

Anyone having information about any of these occurrences, or any other crime, is asked to contact the Weyburn Police Service or to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.