The hall was full at the Ridge Meadows Seniors Activity Centre where Randy Kamp, MP for Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission hosted a free seminar on preventing identity theft and fraud. Latecomers had to find space at the back for what was an attention-grabbing topic among seniors.

The presentation from Dave Cicierski and Sandra Schulz, of the RCMP “Phonebusters” program, was packed with information about how to spot a phone scam, or a mail fraud scam. Their work included examples of fake mail pieces, names of fraudulent organizations, and even cheques they had recovered from victims worth as much as $300,000.

Caitlin Lemiski from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner detailed what kinds of information organizations are legitimately allowed to request and when it is not appropriate to ask for such things as your birth date or Social Insurance Number. She reminded us that although a business can ask for personal information it is always up to us to say “no.”

Oliver Perez, President of Multitrends, Inc, shared his insights on how to best protect your personal information while on line and some background on who creates and propagates spam emails and spyware. He warned that social networking sights, such as Facebook should always be thought of as publicly posting whatever information you put there.

“It was great to see so many seniors come out to educate themselves on this important topic,” says MP Kamp, “Because of the overwhelmingly positive response we are looking forward to putting together another similar seminar in the new year.”

If you are concerned that you have been the victim of a scam, or fraudulent activities such as claims of fake lottery winnings, fake vacation winnings, or fake charities, please contact the Anti-Fraud Call Centre at 1-888-495-8501.