OPP says victim is ‘out of hundreds of dollars’ in Snapchat scam

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is warning residents to be aware of new social media scams after a victim lost “hundreds of dollars.”

Police say the scammer contacted the victim via Snapchat and sent them a picture of a cheque made payable the victim. They were instructed to deposit the cheque through online banking and then send back a portion of the funds via e-transfer.

The cheque was later deemed to be counterfeit, leaving the victim out several hundreds of dollars.

OPP says money transfers and cheque fraud scams are successful for fraudsters because they find ways to put a new spin on an old scam.

“Victims sometimes educate themselves on a particular type of money transfer or cheque fraud scam only to find out a new version of scam has been created,” said OPP in a news release. “Typically, individuals use a phone or computer to communicate with you before they offer a financial transaction. Often this serves a dual purpose of providing criminals with access to your banking information and then for you to legitimately send them money.”