The Canadian financial regulator, the CSA (the Canadian Securities Administrators) warns of fraudulent websites that claim to represent large, well-known financial companies. The CSA said it had recently seen a growing number of scams involving the use of professional-looking e-brochures and other marketing material, designed to trick Canadian investors into visiting “fake” websites.
The scam provides investors with high-quality brochures and other investment documents that are intended to direct investors to “fake” websites and phone numbers created by fraudsters. The fake websites look almost identical to real company websites. Calls to the provided phone numbers usually reach a fraudster who pretends to be an employee of the real company. Then investors are usually instructed to send money by bank transfer.
Investors are also encouraged to check the CSA’s Investor Alerts page for a list of companies to avoid.