Mounties are warning that fraudsters have been found to be impersonating police officers through text messages.
Kamloops RCMP received nine reports over two days last week of scam text messages claiming recipients had received a traffic ticket and directing them to a fraudulent link from a fictitious police officer.
The link goes to a request to provide credit card information in order to pay for the traffic ticket, RCMP Cpl. Dana Napier said in a press release.
Napier said anyone who receives this text should not click the link, and advised police only issue the tickets — they don’t do the collection.
“The police do not reach out to the public to seek payment or personal banking information, including credit cards, whether for a violation ticket or any other matter,” Napier said.
“A text message containing a request for this type of information by someone pretending to be a police officer is a scam and should be ignored.”
Napier said anyone who receives texts like these should call their nearest police detachment to verify the police officer’s identity, and the associated file number or violation ticket.
“Do not give out personal information such as banking, credit card [or] social insurance number,” Napier said.
Scams and frauds can be reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
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