Lately it seems that every time we open our email, text or messaging apps, we’re forced to wade through a minefield of possible scams, increasingly sophisticated attempts by fraudsters to hack into our bank accounts or steal our personal info. 

These assaults often spike exponentially during the holiday season as cybercriminals ramp up their attacks, bombarding us with fake job offers, too-good-to-be-true investment opportunities, phoney CRA alerts, dodgy charitable appeals and phantom notices for package deliveries.

While most of these communications are transparently fraudulent and we quickly delete them, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), a government agency that collects information on fraud and identity theft, says that in 2024 as many as 36,000 Canadians fell victim to frauds and scams, accounting for nearly $640 million in losses. Unfortunately, these numbers are likely much higher – as only five to 10 per cent of all fraud and cybercrime incidents are ever reported.

Riding to the rescue to bust this new breed of digital outlaws comes the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which has just launched its Report Cybercrime and Fraud, a national portal designed to gather all the relevant data in one place. This national clearing house will allow the RCMP to share information with local police and crack down on fraud and arrest the bad actors.

“It’s a huge step forward in reducing the impact of these crimes in Canada,” says Mike Duheme, Commissioner of the RCMP in a statement announcing the portal, which he hopes will provide “victims with a centralized resource to report fraud and cybercrime, and give law enforcement the information needed to respond effectively.”

If you, or someone you know, has fallen victim to digital fraud or received suspiciously fraudulent communications, you should go to the RCMP’s portal and click the “Report Online” button.

It will ask you to describe what happened and how you were affected and provide supporting evidence (documents, messages, transaction receipts and emails) as well as information that might reveal the criminal’s location, such as their contact numbers or IP address. You don’t have to give your name but if you do, the RCMP may contact you for further information.

The RCMP will use your information to build a central repository of fraud and cybercrime, from which it will build a database of reports from across the country and work with local law enforcement to solve individual cases, disrupt future cybercriminal activities and gain a better understanding of how these threats are affecting Canadians. 

So next time you receive an email or text that’s possibly a scam, instead of simply clicking delete you should consider reporting it. Obviously your one report won’t end this crime wave. But the information we provide to law enforcement, the harder it becomes for scammers to thrive.