The Altona Police Service has dealt with another case of fraud. 

The victim contacted the agency on December 19th, notifying police she'd been contacted by someone claiming to be a member of the RCMP needing her help in a fraud investigation. The fraudster told the lady that they had deposited $5,000 into her savings account and she could help by sending three money grams of various denominations to an offshore account, keeping $350 for herself. They would track the money and arrest those responsible.

In fact, when the victim checked her bank account the money was in her savings account. The woman complied with the requests but then became suspicious and reported the matter to police.

Police were able to stop two of the transactions, the third ended up being collected at a cash plus in Casablanca, Morocco. Investigation revealed the thieves had hacked the woman's online bank account and transferred the $5,000.00 from her Tax Free Savings Account into her regular savings account.

Altona Police say people need to know that these problems will likely start with malware infecting your computer through an attachment in an email. Please ensure you don't open attachments unless you trust the sender. Also please ensure your anti-virus is up to date.

People should also check all their bank accounts on a regular basis and change their passwords often. If you find a discrepancies contact your financial institution.

Understand that the police will never contact you and ask you to assist in an investigation nor are police ever likely to provide you with money to assist them in an investigation. For more information on scams go visit the Canadian Anti Fraud Centre web site.