Identity Theft « Burlington Gazette - Local News, Politics, Community

Crooks are using a trusted brand to steal your money - pay attention.

By Staff

October 19th, 2106

BURLINGTON, ON

Many of us use PayPal as a way to pay for items we bought or sold on the internet. It is a useful service – even though they do take their time about getting your money to you when you ask for it.

Other than that – decent value – people trust the service – and the trust the brand – which is why the crooks like to use it.

This came across our desk recently – don’t believe a word of it. Someone wants to steal your identity.

(NOTICE) Your PayPal account has been limited

In order to get back into your account, you will need to confirm your identity with us.

We have made the process easy for you:

Download and open the attachment file that we have sent, and proceed into filling in the form.

Our security team will review the information that you have provided, and immediately remove the limitations in your PayPal account.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

There will be no apology when they siphon money out of your bank accounts.

If BCHS is a community school - then let's hear what the community wants their school to become - let's not limit yourselves to just struggling to keep it open.

By Pepper Parr

October 13, 2016

BURLINGTON, ON

It was interesting, exciting and exhilarating to watch some 60+ parents, several with children in tow and babies in carriages talk about how they will go about ensuring that those children have a high school to go to. The Parent Council at the high school did a superb job of both organizing and pulling together information. A quick look at the sheets of notes highlights how thorough they are going to be.

The trustee for the ward was doing what she is supposed to do – advocate for her constituents. The ward Councillor did her job as well. Her “I am here for you” was what the room needed to here.

If one can assume that all four trustees are on side for keeping Burlington Central High open – that gets 4 of the 11 votes. What about the two more that will be needed to ensure that the proposal to close BCHS is not approved by the trustees?

As an aside it looks like the parents with students going to Lester B. Pearson are comfortable with the decision to merge that school with M.M. Robinson.

The potential to become one of the best high schools in the province rests in the hands of the Parent Council.

The people taking part in the first BCHS community meeting were active, engaged and offered some superb comments.

This is their school – and this may be the opportunity for the community to not only oppose the closing of the school but put together ideas and proposals that would make the place one of the best in the province in terms of where students go for their education.

The structure has a sense of style and solidity to it. It is in the downtown core.

It does need a makeover which if done properly will make the school the one many students will want to attend.

It is already unique with its K to graduation set up. It has a very significant number of bursaries and scholarship available to students.

These are the people that can make their school into whatever they want it to be.

It has a parent population that in 1975 raised $100,000 to, we are told, refurbish the auditorium. Those were 1975 dollars.

This is a group of people who should not limit themselves to the just keeping the school open.

Dare to be Daniel’s and show your Board of Education that you have a vision for your community school.

Salt with Pepper is an opinion column publish from time to time

Identity thieves never stop - a more recent attempt at stealing your money from you.

By Staff

August 24, 2016

BURLINGTON, ON

“You are only able to use your existing security device until 26 August 2016” said a note from what the sender wanted us to believe was from the TD Bank.

The message was not from the TD Bank – it was from someone who wants the reader to think that.

The message goes on to say:

“Effective 27 August 2016, you will be required to log on to your Web Business Banking with the new synchronized master key. To avoid any disruption to your Web Business Banking service, we encourage you to upgrade immediately.”

“Your online security is our priority, for more detailed information please see the attached PDF document enclosed.”

“Your new Security Device upgrade is pin-protected and will provide you with an additional level of protection. All Web Business Banking users who do not upgrade there Security Devices in due time will be deactivated and unable to authorize transactions.

[TD Canada Trust]
[Commercial Banking Operations]

The spelling mistake we highlighted it in red for you is one of the give aways – banks don’t communicate with their clients this way.

Apple users get sent a confusing message - if they answered it may have cost them.

By Staff

March 21, 2016

BURLINGTON, ON

The Regional Police, the RCMP and the banks are doing their best to get the word out to people about Identity Theft and the bank scams that take place every day.

Most recently in this part of the world we read about a senior citizen who is out $8900 – someone tricked him into thinking he was helping the police – when he should have been calling the police.

During a month that police cautioned the public on several occasions about email scams someone somewhere sends out emails to people they have identified as Apple users.
Here is the first mail

The moment you click on the Continue and review line – you are in the process of telling crooks more about you than you want them to know. It does read like a reasonable request – in our case we aren’t Apple users so we recognized what the email was really about.

Within hours there was a follow up email – from the same address.

Here is he second email.

This email amuses there was a transaction – and for the millions that do transactions with Apple – this would seem like a reasonable request. How many people got caught with this one?

These people never give up – it costs them next to nothing to send out tens of millions of each email – all they have to do is snare one person and they pull – wellone local resisdent lost $8900.

If you are in doubt – call the police or talk to your bank. THEY are on your side.

Seniors gets taken for $8900 in a credit card scam. Bank notices unusual activity - gets involved.

By Staff

March 16, 2016

BURLINGTON, ON

A senior who was contacted by telephone by an individual claiming to be investigating illegal purchases on his credit card was coerced into sending over $8900 by wire transfer to China.

On March 5th the senior was contacted by an unknown individual on the telephone stating he was investigating fraudulent activity on his credit card in China and the RCMP was also assisting with the investigation.

The man allowed the caller remote access to his computer and online banking and then the caller requested the male wire transfer money to China to assist the RCMP in tracking it.

The caller then instructed the senior to make separate withdrawals from three bank branches in order to avoid detection. Once the man had made the withdrawals he was advised to attend four different Money Marts in the area and wire transfer the funds to China. The victim transferred over $8900 as instructed by the suspect.

The fraudulent activity was halted when the victim’s bank alerted him to the fraud based on the unusual withdrawals from his account.

The Halton Regional Police Service is reminding citizens to be vigilant against any individuals seeking access to your personal computer or pushing a fictitious scam requesting you to send money via wire transfer.

The bank was the vigilant one in this matter – kudos to them.

And what has the Air Park been up to recently? City solicitor has a lot of questions.

By Staff

March 16, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

One never knows what is going to appear in the mail box.
The following was passed along to us – interesting.

March 11, 2016

Fax: 416-314-8452

Application Assessment Officer
Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change Operations Division
Environmental Approvals Access &
Service Integration Branch Application Verification Unit
135 St. Clair Avenue West, Floor 1 Toronto, Ontario M4V 1P5
E-mail: tina.dufresne@ontario.ca Ms. Tina Dufresne, District Manager
Halton-Peel District Office, Central Region
4145 North Service Road, Suite 300 Burlington, Ontario L7L 6A3

Dear Sir/Madam:
Subject: EBR Registry Number: 012-6693
Ministry Reference Number: 1720-A59NX4 Proponent: 2120901 Ontario Limited
Instrument Type: Environmental Compliance Approval – EPA Part 11.1-sewage
Location: 5432 Bell School Line, Burlington, Ontario

I am writing on behalf of the of the Corporation of the City of Burlington, in response to an application for a new Environmental Compliance Approval for 2120901 Ontario Limited posted to the EBR on February 4, 2016. For the reasons that follow, the City of Burlington is requesting that the application be returned to the proponent as incomplete for the reasons as will be set out below. In the alternative, the City is requesting that the time for the submission of comments be extended for an additional 60 days beyond the current deadline of March 20, 2016 to permit adequate time for consideration of the issues by Burlington City Council, and affected residents.

Background

The City of Burlington and the Burlington Airpark Inc. have been engaged in litigation for several years arising from an illegal fill operation taking place at the Burlington Airpark. The sewage works that are the subject of the application before you drain water from the landfill at the airport that is the subject of the litigation between the City and Airpark. The Airpark is located between Appleby Line and Bell School line, north of Highway 407, all of which is located in the northern rural area of Burlington.

It was the dumping of landfill that resulted in neighbours calling the Gazette – we published the first stories on the problem which woke up people at city hall who began to look into the problem.

A fill operation on the Airpark property commenced in late 2007. The City of Burlington was never consulted about the fill operation or about any proposed expansion plans that the Airpark might have with respect to its operations. On or about March 2013, the City began receiving a significant number of complaints from new landowners in the vicinity of the Airpark. The nature of the complaints ranged from grading activities, drainage, noise, dust, traffic safety and about the possible effects of contaminants in the fill on drinking water. After having investigated these complaints, staff concluded that the Airpark was using its lands as a fill site in order to generate revenue and was not depositing fill to implement a planned and/or imminent expansion of its airport facilities.

As a result of its investigations, on May 3, 2013 the City issued an Order to Comply pursuant to its site alteration by-law by obtaining a permit for the ongoing fill operation. After the Airpark failed to comply, the City issued a Violation Notice under its by-law. Since that time, the City has been engaged in protracted litigation with the Airpark to bring the Airpark into compliance with the City’s by laws to address the off-site impacts caused by its fill operation.

Litigation Round 1

The Airpark brought a court application in July 2013 to prohibit the City from enforcing its Topsoil Preservation and Site Alteration By-law against the Airpark and the Airport. The City responded with a counter application seeking a declaration that the City’s Topsoil Preservation and Site Alteration By-law 6-2003 was valid and binding upon the Airpark and to its fill activities.

In November 2013, the court dismissed Airpark’s application against the City and declared that the City’s Topsoil and Site Alteration By-law was valid and binding upon it. The Airpark subsequently appealed the decision to the Ontario Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal on June 13, 2014.

Following the decision of the Court of Appeal, the City continued to press the Airpark to comply with the Order to Comply under the City’s Site Alteration By-law. The City adopted a new Site Alteration By-law #64-2014 which contained materially the same provisions found in the previous by-law. The City maintained that the Order remained outstanding and it continued to be entitled to enforce it. The Airpark subsequently did file an application, however maintained that it was in relation only to a small area at the north-west corner of the Airport. This position

ignores all of the fill unlawfully deposited at the Airpark between January 1, 2008 and August 2, 2013.

litigation Round 2

The City commenced an application to the court in April, 2015 seeking an order to remove all fill deposited on site between 2008 and 2013. In the alternative, the City seeks to have the court order the Airpark to submit a complete application for a site alteration permit pursuant to the new City’s site alteration by-law. The application was heard by the court on November 10, 2015 and at the time of preparing this letter, the court has not released its decision.

Nature of Burlington’s Interest

The City of Burlington has a clear and compelling interest in the application for Environmental Compliance Approval that has been submitted to the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and posted on the EBR. As demonstrated above, the City has been engaged in a protracted dispute with the Airpark to regulate the fill that was brought onto the site illegally in order to address the environmental impacts resulting from those actions. In particular, the City is concerned with the grading of the property, and the impacts on the drainage of the lands, all of which are related to the proposed sewage works identified in the current application for compliance.

Councillor Blair Lancaster walking through the property of a farm adjacent to the air port found the land spongy and soaked with water – now we know where that water is coming from.

Prior to 2008, which was the start of the fill operations, the Airpark had a storm sewer drainage system that was located generally in the vicinity of the North South runway and the airpark buildings. These storm sewers discharged into the existing pond at the SE corner of the property and into the adjacent farm fields.

With the start of the fill operations, additional storm sewers were installed in the areas of fill. These storm sewers discharge into a regulated watercourse and also at several locations along the west property line. This has resulted in changes to the stormwater discharge regime onto adjacent properties. The change has been from the previous “sheet flow discharge” to “concentrated flow discharge”. As a result, adjacent properties have been adversely impacted, as identified above in the form of complaints received by the City.

The City agrees that the MOECC Environmental Compliance Approvals were required for these storm sewer systems. In addition, Conservation Authority permits should have been applied for. It is the City’s position that detailed storm sewer and stormwater design calculations should be provided for these systems. The application does not include adequate information in this regard.

Irregularities with the Present Application

City staff has had the opportunity to attend at the Halton-Peel District Office to view the materials filed by the proponent. The City submits that the application as filed contains a number of irregularities that merit the rejection of the present application on the basis of incompleteness.

Name of Proponent

The ownership of the Air Park and the taxes they actually pay are now being questioned.

The name of the proponent making application for environmental compliance approval is 212091 Ontario Limited. The Certificate of Incorporation and the Articles of Incorporation attached to the application for that numbered company date back to 2006. Our recent corporate search of this company discloses that the numbered company was in fact amalgamated with the Burlington Airpark Inc. on January 1, 2007, forming a new company, Burlington Airpark Inc. being Ontario Corp. Number 1721779. Burlington takes the position that the application has been made by a defunct corporation which cannot have legal responsibility for the proposed works to which the application relates. The documents submitted in support of the applicant’s name are neither current, nor do they provide proof of the name of a genuine applicant. Furthermore, the documents submitted do not include copies of the subsequent articles of amalgamation.

Burlington submits that the proponent’s name as posted on the EBR is misleading, and a reasonable person having an interest in postings on the EBR respecting the Burlington Airpark Inc. would not have adequate notice of the application as posted in its current form.

Location(s) Related to this Instrument

The posting to the Environmental Registry identify the relevant address as 5432 Bell School Line, Burlington. Our information is that the actual address for the site is 5342 Bell School Line, in the City of Burlington. Again, any reasonable person having an interest in activities related to the Airpark would not have adequate notice that an application had been made for those lands. Also, 5342 Bell School Line is only one of three land parcels forming the Airpark lands.

Statement of the Municipality (s. 5.1)

The City notes that section 1.5 of the Application – Statement of the Municipality has been left blank. The Municipality has to indicate that it has no objection to the construction of the works in the municipality. I can assure you, that the City of Burlington, where the works are located has not been contacted and has not been consulted. Furthermore, the box has not been checked as “NA”.

Our understanding is that a municipal declaration is required from the municipality in which the sewage works are or will be located. The Ministry’s own “Guide to Applying for an Environmental Compliance Approval”, identifies that this declaration, “is required to establish the municipality’s general concurrence with the proposal, to ensure that the proposed works would not contravene any municipal by-laws or other requirements.” Also, the common law requires that the City be consulted in these circumstances.

Based on the background provided in this correspondence, the City of Burlington has very serious concerns about the sewage works identified in the application, and the municipality ought to have been consulted prior to the application having been made. The City takes the position that the installation of sewage works was done concurrent with the illegal infill operation that was occurring at the site, in contravention of the City’s site alteration by-laws.

Burlington’s Request

Barbara Sheldon look at 32 feet of landfill less than 50 feet from her kitchen window. All dumped without any permits because an airport is federally regulated. The city is not done with this issue.

Barbara Sheldon look at 32 feet of landfill less than 50 feet from her kitchen window. All dumped without any permits because an airport maintained they were federally regulated and did not have to comply with city bylaws.

The City of Burlington is requesting that the application be returned to the proponent as incomplete for the reasons as presented. The application contains incomplete and inaccurate information, and has the effect of misleading any person with an interest in tracking environmental activity on the EBR. The proponent ought to correct the application, and ensure that discussions are held with the relevant municipal authorities, including the City of Burlington and Conservation Halton before an application for environmental compliance is re submitted.

In the alternative, the City is requesting that the time for the submission of comments be extended for an additional 60 days beyond the current deadline of March 20, 2016 to permit adequate time for consideration of the issues by Burlington City Council, and affected residents.

Please note that these submissions are preliminary and deal only with the adequacy of the application and process followed to date. Should the application continue to be processed for approval, the City will submit its technical comments on the application for environmental approval.

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours truly,

Nancy L. Shea Nicol
City Solicitor & Director of Legal Services cc. Mr. Ian Blue, Gardiner

This is the kind of document that would get circulated to council members and discussed in a closed session of council. Our thanks to the citizen who had the courage to pass it along to the Gazette.

This is not the government trying to help you - this is someone wanting to steal your money.

By Staff

January 4th, 2016

BURLINGTON, ON

It does sort of look official – but it isn’t.

If you see this in your electronic mail box – just delete it.

The Canada Revenue Agency does not use email to communicate with people about their tax matters.

The rule when you see something in your email inbox is simple – if it looks suspicious – it probably is. If in doubt – don’t.

Identity theft is all over the place on the internet- Stay vigilant.

By Staff

October 27th, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

They are out in force this week – the fraud artists are just flooding the internet with what at first glance looks like a message from your banker – always look at the email address the message came from – and even then – give the bank a call – they always want to hear from you about any effort to scam your money from you.

The scam artists want to learn as much as they can about you – so they can become you and drain every dollar you have out of your account. Pay attention to the email you get.

One of our people got two requests to check on their account – first one went like this:

It came from: CIBC Online <no-reply@cibonl.com>- that is not a CIBC email address

Because we have received multiple failed authentication attempts, your online access has been temporarily locked.
To restore your access, click: Sign On to CIBC Online and proceed with the verification process.

The second one came from:

Customer Contact Centre! <supervisor@hdt.es>
And used the first name of the person it was sent to: Good afternoon (name)

Your Bank of Montreal account has just been used to connect Internet Explorer on Windows 10/26/2015 12:27:39 Uganda

Could not this browser if you have used this device or with your account.
This can happen when you first connect to another computer, phone or browser when you use the browser incognito or private browsing or deleting cookies or when accessing your account else.

If this was you, please sign in from your regularly used device.

If you haven’t recently signed in from an unrecognized device and believe someone may have accessed your account, please visit this link to change your password and update your account recovery information.

Thanks for taking these additional steps to keep your account safe.

The grammatical errors were a dead giveaway with this one.

The identity thieves are very good at what they do.

They are out there – looking for someone who may not pay close attention. It is your money –make sure someone doesn’t steal it from you.

Stay vigilant.

If you believe this one – you will probably believe almost anything.

By Pepper Parr

September 9, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

This popped up in my email box – can you imagine a bank asking you what you thought of a change they were making .

That never happens – which was the first clue that the email was the first step in an attempt to get into my identity and rummage around my bank account to see if there was something they could steal.

I’ve not had an account with the CIBC for at least ten years – so there is nothing to learn about me there.

Somewhere along the way someone who makes their living taking what isn’t theirs from people
If you see this one – click on delete, quickly.

The cheek!

Changes to the Electronic Access Agreement

We’ve changed the Electronic Access Agreement.
We wanted to check it’s OK with you.
The following is a summary of the changes made to the Agreement effective as of August 1, 2015
Part I “Terms and Conditions for CIBC eDeposit” is new and applies to your use of the new CIBC eDeposit feature within CIBC Mobile Banking.
Part K was amended to add new definitions to explain the meaning of the following terms: “CIBC eDeposit” and “Images”.
Section 56 “Exclusive Jurisdiction” was removed.
Section 70 “Governing Law” was amended to clarify its meaning and add new information.

What do I have to do?

If You agree with the changes we’ve made, please click on the link below:
https://www.cibc.com/ca/agreement-2015-confirm.aspx

You must use your Bank Card and Password to access Online Banking. You may also be required to answer your Personal Verification Questions when accessing Online Banking.

If you do not agree to a change in this Agreement, you must immediately stop using Online Banking

Police officer spots stolen car - arrests the occupants and discovers identity documents belonging to other people.

By Staff

May 15th, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

If there was ever any doubt that thieves regularly steal your identity any way they can – read on.

On Wednesday May 13, 2015 at 6:45am a Halton Regional Police uniform officer on patrol at Motel 6, located at 4345 North Service Road in the City of Burlington observed a motor vehicle that had been recently reported stolen by Ottawa Police. The vehicle was stopped and the occupants subsequently arrested.

Further investigation revealed the two female occupants in the vehicle were also in possession of several pieces of counterfeit government identification, stolen credit cards and a small quantity of marihuana.

Accused:
Line PHRAND, 55 years, from St.Andre D’Argenteuil, Quebec
Cynthia GILBERT, 38 years, from Montreal, Quebec
have both been charged with:

Possession of Stolen Property over $5000
Unauthorized Possession of Credit Card Data
Possession of Identity Theft Documents
Possession of Counterfeit Mark
Possession of a Controlled Substance

Anyone with information on this or any other crime is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1 800 222-8477 (TIPS) or through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.com or by texting “Tip201” with your message to 274637 (crimes).

Identity thieves hiding behind Amazon skirts – don’t get sucked in by this one.

By Staff

June 30^th, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

They are doing it again. This time the identity thieves are using Amazon as the skirts they hide behind.

We didn’t place this order.

We got this notification of an order we are supposed to have placed – we didn’t place any such order. We now buy most of our books from A Different Drummer Book store.

However we have in the past purchased from Amazon and it is conceivable that I might have thought my wife placed an order and I would want to see what was bought.

The moment I click on that link – they have me. They then begin to suck information out of me and, if I am gullible enough, they might convince me to give them credit card and banking information. Once that happens you can almost hear the sound of their sucking money out of your accounts.

If it doesn’t look real – then it probably isn’t. That is especially the case with the internet.

Caution, always caution.

This isn’t from Amazon – this was from people wanting to get your identity and take your money.

By Staff

April 5, 2-14

BURLINGTON, ON.

Another ID theft attempt.

The people who do this like using national brands – companies you might have used in the past. This latest one involved Amazon – a company I have used in the past.

They got one of my email addresses and sent me an email they hoped I would think it came from Amazon. However, I haven’t used Amazon since I moved to Burlington. The Different Drummer has everything I need but for those who like the Amazon service – they may have been taken in.

Look carefully at the address of the sender.

Notice that the domain name is spelt “amazons.ca” And that isn’t amazon is it?

You have to be careful – It’s sort of like counting your change before you leave the store.

It is easy to get fooled by email like this: Canadian banks never, ever send this kind of email.

By Staff

April 1, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

Some people will get taken in by this. If they bank with the Royal Bank of Canada they might click on that link – and that could well be the beginning of a process that moves your money from your bank account to someone else’s bank account.

What’s the give away here? Look at the address of the sender: rcbroyal – if it were legal it should have read rbcroyal. Also the srvcustom r – spelling error. Most important – a Canadian bank would never, ever send you a notice like this.

If you are at all active on the internet – and it’s hard not to be – you need to be vigilant. There are literally tens of thousands of people pumping out phony messages that are intended to steal your money from you.

At a quick glance they look genuine and they catch your attention.

This latest one, purported to come from the Royal Bank is pretty easy to spot as phony but you do have to look beyond the bank logo which is in the message to give you comfort that it is your bank talking to you.

Just pay attention – and you should be OK. Unfortunately, if money does get removed from your account – it will not be easy to get it back.

Background links:

They will go to almost any length to fool you.

Classic example of identity theft – known brand name used to pull you in; plausable story as well – then they have you.

By Staff

BURLINGTON, ON.

January 20, 2014

It appeared as an email to “undisclosed recipients”. For those that get taken in by these attempts at Identity Theft this one had an intriguing angle. The names, said the email, had been drawn from the Samsung database of telephone and internet email users. At some point I may have been on the Samsung web site and asked for some information. There were none of the usual spelling mistakes. But the language gives it away.

What would you have done with this one?

Had you responded you would have given away a lot of information about yourself that someone would be selling to people who are never described as nice.

**************THIS IS NOT A SPAM************** Samsung Europe Internet Prize and Email Messaging Center P.O Box 732

Rotterdam- The Netherlands

Telefax: 0031-844-393-028

www.samsung.com/europe

WINNING NOTIFICATION: Coupon Number: Q-119/SRV The sum of Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Euros with a Samsung Ativ Book9 lite and a Samsung Galaxy NoteIII have been awarded to you from Samsung database of telephone and internet email users from which your email address was attached to the winning Coupon Number: Q-119/SRV.

Contact the notarization officer with your winning coupon number and required information for your notarization for transfer below.

CONTACT:

Smit De Keizer(Mr.) Claims Agent / Notarization Officer.

Contact Email: samsung.eu@europe.com

Provide required information:

Full Names:

Age:

Occupation:

Address:

Nationality:

Country of Residence:

Tel number:

Email:

Mode of Payment: (Bank Transfer, Bank Cheque or Personal Claim) Note that any leakage of your winning notification resulting to a double claim will automatically forfeit your winning prize thus we advise you to keep your winning notification message confidential and away from public notice to prevent double claims or impersonation until after remittance/payment to you.

Your Faithfully,

Victoria Van Eggo.(P.R.O) Samsung Europe

Had this come to you – what would you have done? Identity theft happens and people get seriously damaged financially. Know more and protect yourself. And lighten up on the greed factor and you’ll be just fine.

Background links:

How the identity theft thieves really work.

What is the first clue that the email shown below is an attempt to steal your identity?

By Staff

BURLINGTON, ON.

January 14, 2014

Identity theft is a BIG business, and a rather successful one for some people as well. This message came floating in earlier today. What are the clues?

Well, first the receiver of the email is not an Apple product user, second look at the email address it was sent from and then note the date at the bottom of the email.

Look at the language – there is no way Apple is going to let a message that poorly crafted get sent out.

If you use Apple products you might have thought this was a legitimate message. It isn’t – phony as a three dollar bill.

The full message reads:

This is an automatic message by the system to let you know that you
have to confirm your Apple ID account information within 48 hours.
Your account has been frozen temporarily if order to protect it.

The account will continue to be frozen until it is approved And Validate
you account information. Once you have updated your account records
, your information will be confirmed and your account will start
to work as normal once again.

This will help protect you in the future. The process does not take more than 5 minutes.

To proceed to confirm your account information Click here

If the message doesn’t make sense to you – delete it.

Background:

Identity theft is a BIG business – the purpose of which is to steal your money.

Identity thieves find a new angle – if your security software is up to date it will help block this kind of crap.

December 30, 2013

By Staff

BURLINGTON, ON. It doesn’t take the identity thieves and the bank scammers very long to find a new angle.

This is what the email message looked like. The language used gives this one away – as well as the country code in the url.

Yesterday emails began going out advising you that the government had a tax refund for you – all you had to do was fill in a form and the dollars would flow your way.

If you had good email security software in place you would have gotten this message. If you didn’t – you would have gotten a form that looked like the kind of thing a government agency might have sent out and had you filled in the form someone who wants to steal your money would have had the kind of information needed to do just that.

If it looks to good to be true – that’s because it probably is too good to be true.

This email message was sent out to tens of thousands of unsuspecting people with Canadian email addresses. Where did they get the name? That is a tougher question to answer.

That $5 million in the South African Reserve Bank is never going to get to you – but if you’re not careful you could lose some of your money.

By Pepper Parr.

BURLINGTON, ON. August 9, 2013. The first time you read the email you wonder – what is this? How did they get my name and – this isn’t real is it?

A lot of people take a second look and click on a link or respond to a message. When they do that they have begun to engage the person who sent the email. The people who send this stuff are patient; they have nothing else to do but build confidence with you, make you believe that they are for real.

Dear Sir/Madam

I am sorry to bug your privacy. My name is Siti Rohani Salleh, I am the wife to late Abu Talib Yadin who happens to be a government contractor, trader and a politician. My husband was divisional treasurer of trade and contractors of the Malaysian Indian Congress in Perak state. He was brutally murdered by opposing members of his party for his straightforwardness and accountability though the government claimed that it was a robbery attack but everybody know it was assassination by some people in government. I was lucky to stand this gruesome murder on the night of Saturday, 15th September 2012 but they still stabbed me on my abdomen but I was lucky to escape. I was rush to the hospital by some neighbors and eventually the same assassin still came to the hospital in Malaysia just to take my life but eventually they miss their access to my ward.

So I had to instruct our account manager to transfer our money to South Africa where I had to run and seek asylum/refugee. Presently I am in the government hospital.

Please copy link below and read more about the incident where my husband was murdered on 12th September 2012.

https://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?sec=nation&file=/2012/9/15/nation/12034249

I write you to seek your assistance in the security of US$5.5million Deposited by me with a SOUTH AFRICAN RESERVE BANK before I seek refugee/asylum here. The South African reserve bank will allow you go on their online banking to transfer the funds. I am the only one with direct access and information of this deposit.

I decided to seek help knowing that My days are numbered having received a call from the Reserve bank that they will turn the deposit to its government treasury if I fail to present a representative for the claim. I seek your assistance to be made the Administrator to this inheritance since I have no relative or children. I intend to introduce you to the director of the bank whom I deem very competent to guide you through this claim process. Please get back to me for more information on this inheritance.

I was lead (note the spelling error) by the Almighty to send this mail to you after serious thought of all emails I saw on the internet. Please treat this seriously. I have all documents of deposit of this fund to proove I hope to hear from you soonest before I go.

Thank you. send your reply to me so that we can finalize this transfer within 3 days, I have all documentation to back up this claim, this is my email address: mrsitis@aol.com Mrs.Siti Rohani Salleh. Reply me to: mrsitis@aol.com

The people who sent you this are hoping you will be enticed to click on the email and if you do that – you have taken the first step to someone beginning the process of stealing more of your identity and as much of your money as they can.

The stealing of your identity will have already begun if you get an email like the one below. They have your email address – what else do they have?

There are people who earn their living this way – they look for naive people, gullible people, curious people or greedy people and they work their scam.

Spend $10 on a good read and the best introduction you will ever get to how identities are stolen and why you get some of the email that appears in your inbox.

Just how this is done was explained all too well in a book written by Will Ferguson “419”, a title that became a best seller and won the Scotiabank Giller prize in 2012, is the story about a man who got pulled into one of these scams and chose to end his life.

The book is a great read – and an interesting look at what the police in this country can and can’t do about identity theft.

We quote from the book, which is fiction, and very well researched. Detectives from the Economic Crime Unit of a police service are explaining to a woman whose father got taken that “The only defence we have with these types of fraud is education”.

In the novel the police show the woman some of the documents they have collected. “One is both very specific and oddly vague: A Fund Management Agreement issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria; an International Remittance voucher; a Certificate of Registration; Letters of Intent, affidavits, court orders, banking forms, all duly signed and duly sealed.”

And all phony, all created to fool people into parting with their money.

The people who do this type of thing are pretty good at it – but they succeed only because they gain your confidence.

In Will Ferguson’s “419” he takes you through just how the thieves, all from Nigeria in this book, work to gain a person’s confidence.

“These are some of the actual documents your father received; our tech unit recovered them from the cached files on his hard drive. You father had tried to delete them in the days before his accident. He thought he had cleared the memory – here – your father would have scanned and signed these forms and then emailed them back to Nigeria as attachments.”

When you get emails like this – scroll through it – some of the claims these people make are amazing – just don’t click on any of the links – you don’t really know where they are going to take you.

This is one of an ongoing series the Gazette will be doing on Identity Theft as part of an effort to make our readers more aware of what might show up in your email inbox one day.

If it doesn’t seem right – it is probably wrong. The identity thieves depend on your gullibility.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON. August 4, 2013. One of the biggest problems we face as a society is the theft that takes place of money that is not in our wallets or purses. Some call it identity theft; others call them scams – the result is usually the same – someone we don’t know, will never see, manages to convince us to give them information that allows them to take money out of our bank or from our credit cards.

They often get our money because we are greedy and think that there really is something for nothing waiting for us out there. Do we really believe someone in Nigeria has millions of dollars they want to get out of that country and that they will give us a large portion of that money if we help them? Some people do.

Does anyone not know someone who got sucked in by one of these schemes? The thieves play upon our greed or our naivety to get us to part with information they need to get our money.

The Gazette is doing an ongoing series of articles on identity theft and how these thieves work to take advantage of us.

Read the notice I got carefully – what tells you this is a phony message designed to get me to give the sender information that would allow them to take money from my bank account.

I happen to bank with the Bank of Montreal. Earlier today I got an email, sent to an address I seldom use. It was an email from my bank – well let the following tell the story.

Why is my bank telling me about a payment? And just what is a “pending status”. It sounds kind of official.

The email tells me that I am required to verify something – online. They use the words “secure verification link” but that’s just to make you feel confident.

There isn’t a bank in this country that is ever going to send you an email like this.

A bigger reason to be suspicious is in the Subject line. “Receive your payment now”; that’s the kind of language advertisers use.

The people who send emails like this buy lists of names from other thieves online and then they send out tens of thousands of emails. It doesn’t cost them a dime to send the email.

If one ploy doesn’t work – they will try another.

This was a really direct attempt to get information. Banks do customer satisfaction surveys but they don’t use email and they don’t offer money if you do the survey. $378. is far more than any survey company will ever pay for participating. The best you’re going to get is a gift card for maybe $20.

This one was pretty blunt and played on that little bit of greed we all have in us. I didn’t download this one – it would have taken me to a web site that could do very serious damage to the information on my computer.

It would have given them access to all my contacts and might have permitted the sender to install software on my computer that could capture every keystroke I entered.

This type of data theft is particularly vicious – but that $368 looks tempting to some people.

What can you do to protect yourself? Common sense and remember – if it looks to good to be true – that’s because it isn’t true.

This is one of an ongoing series the Gazette will be doing on Identity Theft as part of an effort to make our readers more aware of what might show up in your email inbox one day.

Police warn public of the latest ID theft scam. Do you think the Chief of Police or the RCMP are going to actually call you?

By Staff

BURLINGTON, ON. – July 25, 2013. The Halton Regional Police would like to caution the public that scammers are using the names of the RCMP, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) in a computer scam.

Individuals report a frozen computer, or they have been locked-out of their computers, after receiving pop-up messages warning that the computer has been associated with pornography.

These warning messages claim to be from one of these agencies, and tell the recipient to pay a “fine” so the computer can be “unlocked.” The message also claims that if the “fine” is not paid within 72 hours, criminal proceedings will commence against the user.

“These types of messages, commonly known as “scareware”, are designed to create such shock and anxiety that victims respond by sending money quickly,” states the RCMP in a news release.

The public is advised that if you receive one of these messages please be aware that it is a scam and has not been issued by the CACP, CSIS or the RCMP.

Do not pay the $100.00 “fine”. Being “locked out” of your computer is an indication that your system may have been infected with malware and you will need to take steps to address that problem.

The police pass along some tips to help keep your computer protected:

• Never click on a pop-up that claims your computer has a virus;

• Update your anti-virus software often and scan your computer for viruses regularly;

• Do not click on links or attachments in e-mails sent to you by someone you don’t know;

• Turn on your browser’s pop-up blocking feature;

• Never download anti-virus software from a pop-up link sent to you in an e-mail.

If you have received a “scareware” message please report it to your local police office and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (1-888-495-8501).

One might ask why someone would be worried about being told there was pornography on their computer if they never visited one of those websites. Of course, if a person has visited such a site – perhaps there is reason to be afraid.

Computer fraud is rampant – people will call you and offer to fix a problem with your computer – they are after your money.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON. March 5, 2013 There isn’t one of us that doesn’t find at some time that their computer isn’t doing what we wanted it to do and we are flummoxed in figuring out what has gone wrong. So when someone calls saying they can help – all caution gets set aside and we eagerly answer the questions we are asked by the person who called.

We don’t ask – how does this person know I am having a problem with my computer? As soon as you have answered the first two questions – they have you. All that isn’t known is how far they are going to take you and how much of your money they are going to end up with. They are not going to fix anything on your computer but, according to the Regional Police they are probably going to install a virus on your computer and then try to convince you to pay them to remove that virus.

The best protection available is you asking questions.

March is Fraud Awareness Month – use the time to think about who you let near your computer. If you don’t personally know the person calling – hang up.

The Halton Regional Police are warning the public to be suspicious of any calls they receive from people claiming to be employed by a computer company that has become aware of a problem with your computer – they will tell you it is infected with as virus they can remove.

This is known as the “Anti-Virus Scam” which has been around for several years. Between March 1st 2011 and August 31st 2012, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has received 13,842 complaints of this type with a total dollar loss of $814,511.00. In most cases, these calls are originating from call centers based outside of Canada.

As part of this scam, the call recipient would be instructed to do a series of keyboard commands that would allow the caller to remotely access the computer over the internet and actually install the “virus” to make the computer appear to be infected. The caller would then remove the “virus” and request credit card payment anywhere between $35.00 and $469.00 for their services.

In some instances, the same person will call back and report that the version of the security software has expired and request an additional $100.00 to have it re-activated. They got you once and they figure they can get you a second time.

If you receive an unsolicited call from people telling you that your computer is infected with a virus or that your version of security software is inactive or invalid, you are urged to hang up – this is someone wanting to defraud you of money to fix a problem they may have created.

If you don’t know them – don’t deal with them.

Allowing a third-party, someone you don’t really know, to remotely access your computer, puts you at considerable risk. They can install software that logs every keystroke you make and capture sensitive data , such as online banking user names and passwords, bank account information and other information to steal your identity.

Police are also reminding the public to be very careful about providing credit card and/or banking information to anyone over the phone and internet, especially in cases where the call was unsolicited.

March is Fraud Awareness Month. Police ask you to please take the time to educate yourself, your family and your friends on how not to become victims of Fraud. For further information, please visit www.haltonpolice.ca or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre website.

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