Scammers pretending to be the RCMP try to trap Canadians

Several readers of the decryptors have pointed out to us in the past few days a new attempt at home as they saw.These people claim to have received in their email box an alleged RRC document accusing them of sinister crimes.

La lettre, supposément signée de la main de la commissaire de la GRC Brenda Lucki, affirme que vous faites l’objet de plusieurs poursuites judiciaires en vigieur : pédopornographie, pédophilie, exhibitionisme, cyber pornographie, trafic sexuel (sic).

The "document" that a scamm has sent to many Canadians in recent weeks.

Photo: Radio-Canada

Vous avez commis les infractions après avoir été cible sur Internet (site d’annonce), puis pensant des échange Mails (Messagerie instantanée) avec plusieurs mineurs, les photos dénudées de vous que vous envoyez au Mineurs ont été enregistrées par notre cyber police et constituent des preuves de vos Infractions (sic), poursuit la lettre.

On invite alors l’internaute à envoyer ses justifications à une adresse courriel comportant le préfixe gendarmeriecanada.royal.gouv, mais provenant d’un service de courriel français.

La lettre assure que le message sera envoyé à Mr Simon Jolin-Barrette, procureur au tribunal du Québec.(In reality, M.Jolin-Barrette is the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Quebec).

Unsurprisingly, this is a false document, clearly falsified.The same false document (new window) was used in France at the beginning of 2021 to try to scam internet users living in this country.Our readers saw the obvious game of a scammer and preferred to point out this attempt to have the decryptors.

What if you received this email?

The Antifraude Center of Canada (CAFC) is unequivocal: do not respond to email.

Do not open it, delete it immediately to avoid opening the message in the future accidentally.Do not download any attachments accompanying the message. Ne cliquez jamais sur les liens qui apparaissent dans le message, suggère le CAFC.

CAFC also suggests contacting police services if you have sent money to the scammer.You can also report CAFC fraud by clicking here (new window).

Survey survey

We decided to investigate this scam to highlight this fraudulent ploy.Using a false email address, we responded to the message from the scammer, explaining that we had received the document and that we did not know what it was, but that we were worried.

L’arnaqueur nous a répondu une heure plus tard avec un document, cette fois-ci provenant de la Direction de protection des mineurs et comportant non seulement le logo de la GRC, mais aussi celui de la police d’Ottawa. L’oiseau a percé votre serveur, nous a-t-on indiqué, de façon cryptique, avant de répéter les accusations de pédopornographie et exhibitionniste (sic).

Another document sent to us by the scammer.

Photo: Radio-Canada

A few minutes later, another document landed in our email box. Nous accusons bonne réception de votre courrier et prenons note de votre confession, nous expliquait-on. L’arnaqueur nous demandait une copie de notre carte nationale d’identité (une pièce d’identité française qui n’existe pas au Canada).

He then explained that we had two options. Nous pouvions subir un procès, à la suite de quoi notre délit sera rendu public et nous serions passibles d'une peine allant jusqu’à 5 ans de prison et d'une amende pouvant aller jusqu’à 15 000 $.

Sinon, on nous a offert de convenir un arrangement avec le bureau du procureur (sic), ce qui mènera à l’abandon de toutes les charges (sic) contre nous.

The catch?We were asked to send $ 4,875 to conclude the agreement.

When we asked how to transfer the amount, the scammer sent us bank information to make the transfer.This information contained not only the name of a person, but also the contact details of a bank account of the Ma French Bank in Lille, in France.

This document, which we cavited, contained banking information from a real French bank account.

Photo: Radio-Canada

We were able to confirm that it was a real bank account.My French Bank is a 100 % online bank, so we cannot determine if the person holding the account lives in the region where his branch is established.However, to open an account (new window), my French bank requires a French national identity card, a passport from a country of the European Union or proof of French residence.

We were able to find a person living in the Paris region whose name corresponds to that of the bank account. Je ne suis pas au courant de cette arnaque. Je vais essayer lundi de voir avec ma conseillère, nous a-t-elle expliqué, avant de mettre fin à notre conversation.

The scammer calls us

By email, we told the scammer that we did not understand how to send him the money and asked that he calls us.We then provided him with a false name. Il nous a répondu que nous recevrions un appel d’un numéro de téléphone français, puisque nous (Gendarmerie royale) travaillons en collaboration avec EUROPOL qui nous a transmis votre dossier et c’est avec eux que vous devez discuter sur votre sort (sic).

A man expressing himself in French quickly called us a French mobile phone number and asked to speak to the fictitious interlocutor that we had created for him.We then identified and explained to him that we were journalists and that we were investigating a scam targeting Canadians.He raised the tone, reiterated that he was a police officer and forcefully demanded to speak to this fictitious interlocutor.We repeated that we were a journalist and that he had communicated with a false account that we had created to trap him.He suddenly put an end to the call.

We were able to associate the phone number with a man who has already lived in Uganda.The latter had broadcast this issue in a Facebook publication.We could not determine if he currently lives in France.

It is after all quite rare that a scammer requires a money transfer by giving his victim bank information.The scammers often ask for a transfer of cryptocurrency or even send them gift cards or prepaid credit cards.This strategy ensures that it is more difficult for the victim and for the authorities to identify the scammer.

In this case, not only does the scammer provide us with bank information, but he communicated with us from an unconted mobile phone number.

This scam does not seem very sophisticated.The documents are full of spelling mistakes and the idea that an agent of the RCMP makes accusations through an email and then requests money is improbable.

Moreover, if the antifraude center of Canada has received 22 reports since September for this same attempted scam, none of these potential victims have paid money, we were assured.