iN NUMBERS: British Columbians on guard against fraud and cybercrime

You’ve got to admire the work ethic of cybercriminals and scammers. They’re so persistent you’d think they would be able to hold down a regular job.

Most people in B.C. have dealt with an attempted scam or cybercrime in the past few years. 

If you’re frustrated with scam attempts, you can always report them to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. 

Here are the numbers:

• 39: Per cent of British Columbians have received a phishing email in the last three years in an attempt to get personal information.
• 34: Per cent of British Columbians have received an email offering money for their help in the last three years, like a displaced Nigerian prince offering you pounds of gold if you send him $1,000. 
• 38: Per cent of British Columbians haven’t dealt with cybercrime or fraud attempts in the last three years. 
• 36: Per cent of British Columbians don’t trust the federal government with their information. 
• 71: Per cent of British Columbians trust their bank to keep their information safe.
• 5: Per cent of British Columbians had someone try to apply for a loan or open a line of credit in their name in the last three years.
• 20,000: Dollars. That’s how much someone impersonating a lawyer defrauded a grandparent who thought they were bailing their grandkid out of jail in Kelowna.
• 1: Scam in Penticton used stickers with QR codes on parking meters to trick people into entering their bank info on a fraudulent website. The City of Penticton’s parking app does not use QR codes. 
• 5: Months ago the Vernon RCMP warned people that someone hacked into a local’s Facebook account to run a Marketplace scam.  
• 1: Scam in Kamloops involved a fraudster convincing someone to put their bank cards in a mailbox, ironically, because they told the victim they were trying to protect them from fraud.
• 10,682: Cyber crimes were reported to police in B.C. in the first half of 2025.