Canadians trust their scam radar, but mounting losses, and weak enforcement tell another story
Canadians are losing hundreds of millions of dollars to fraud while most cases never see a courtroom outcome – and many investors still believe they can spot scams before they hit.
According to Statistics Canada, Canadians lost more than $638m to fraud in 2024, while reported losses from the start of this year to the end of September reached $544m nationwide and nearly $193.5m in Ontario alone, as reported by CBC News.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre estimates only five to 10 percent of victims report their losses, which suggests the real numbers are far higher.
At the household level, fraud is common.
A new Leger poll cited by The Canadian Press suggests one in four Canadians say they have been victims of fraud or extortion.
The survey of 1,536 Canadians found 25 percent reported being victimized, while 71 percent said they had not.
The poll suggests the rate of victimization is broadly consistent across regions, genders and age groups.
The same survey indicates that credit card and bank fraud are the most frequent problems, with 52 percent of respondents saying they have been targeted by such scams.
It also suggests 36 percent have been victims of online scams such as phishing or fake websites, while 31 percent report falling victim to phone or text scams.
Respondents also cited identity theft, fake job offers, extortion or blackmail, investment or cryptocurrency scams, ransomware or computer hacking, and online dating fraud.
Older Canadians stand out as a high-risk group.
The federal government considers fraud the number one crime against older Canadians, covering identity theft, credit and debit card fraud, and online scams, according to CBC News.
The Leger poll suggests Canadians aged 55 and over are most likely to report credit card or bank fraud, at 62 percent.
Despite the exposure, many cases do not reach authorities.
The survey suggests only about half of fraud or extortion victims report the crimes to police or other bodies, while four in five discuss their experience with family or friends.
Respondents reported anger, frustration, fear, anxiety, and shame after being scammed, and almost three quarters said they worry about future victimization.
At the same time, confidence remains high.
The poll suggests 89 percent of Canadians believe they can recognize potential scams.
Jennifer McLeod Macey of Leger described this as a “confidence paradox” and said “that gap between confidence and reality is where fraudsters are going to thrive,” as reported by The Canadian Press.
On the enforcement side, capacity constraints limit deterrence.
CBC News reports that in Ontario, the majority of fraud cases since 2020 have ended with charges stayed or withdrawn, which the Ontario Crown Attorneys’ Association links to COVID-19-related backlogs, complex files, and limited resources.
In the 2023–24 fiscal year, 58 percent of fraud cases ended with charges stayed or withdrawn, up from 46 percent a decade earlier when guilty decisions still made up most outcomes.
Over the same period, reported fraud incidents in Ontario more than doubled, rising from just over 30,300 in 2014 to more than 71,700 in 2024, as per Statistics Canada data.
Police now lay charges in less than 10 percent of reported incidents, and more than half of those cases are later tossed in court.
Given the rising volume, the sophistication of schemes and links to overseas organised crime, experts quoted by CBC News say Canada is unlikely to solve fraud through case-by-case prosecution alone.
Peter German, president of the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and a former RCMP deputy commissioner, told CBC News that fully enforcing every case “would probably be a goliath task” and argued that “disruption might very well be the route that police have to follow.”
Toronto civil fraud recovery lawyer Norman Groot similarly told CBC News that “the code word that you hear in law enforcement circles is 'disruption'.”
Experts also see a larger role for the private sector.
German said police should use their relationships with the finance industry, which is already dealing with fraud “on a minute-by-minute” basis, and called for governments to ease privacy barriers that limit information-sharing.
Halifax-based anti-fraud consultant Vanessa Iafolla told CBC News she wants telecom providers to “screen out these fraudsters” and prevent them from reaching Canadians’ phones.
She added that investing in anti-fraud efforts is important for the domestic economy: “If that money leaves here, it’s not spent here.”
