Fraud Prevention Month: Combatting the Hidden Crime with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Coalition

Fraud prevention and awareness are central to CIRO’s work to protect Canadian investors and capital markets.

This Fraud Prevention Month, CIRO has partnered with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) to raise awareness about this year’s theme: Fraud: The Hidden Crime. Each week in March, we will amplify the CAFC’s themes and messages and add our own resources into the toolbox available for Canadian investors to protect themselves.

This week, our focus is on “The Rise of Fraud”, one of the most prevalent yet under-reported crimes. Making matters even worse, fraud is now hidden behind a layer of sophistication, including very convincing deep fakes and convincing websites that impersonate legitimate investment dealers. These technologies make it easier than ever for fraudsters to appear credible, and much harder for Canadians to tell the difference.

Posters from the Canadian Anti-Scam Coalition.

CIRO and the Canadian Anti-Scam Coalition

In the past year, CIRO has become a partner of the Canadian Anti-Scam Coalition—along with other securities regulators, financial organization and telecoms. The main message for Canadians is to stop, check and talk! In other words, when you receive an unsolicited message or email, STOP before taking any action. CHECK that the source is real by verifying it through outside validation. And finally, TALK... share your experience with others to ensure they don’t fall for the same scam. Fraud is agnostic about its victims; it can affect anyone and the financial, emotional and psychological impacts are significant.

Website Takedown Tool

Another important initiative in CIRO’s efforts to protect Canadian investors is our collaboration with the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) to disarm fraudulent investment websites.

Between June 5, 2025, and November 23, 2025, CIRO and the CSA worked to successfully deactivate more than 3,900 fake investment platforms and cryptocurrency scam websites involving more than 6,900 individual URLs associated with those sites. While the new initiative results in the rapid deactivation of many problematic websites, Canadians are encouraged to report any websites they have concerns about to their local securities regulator.

Avoiding Fraud and Protecting Your Investments

The golden rule for investors is simple—before investing, verify that your investment dealer is registered to sell investment products in the first place. This can be done through CIRO’s Advisor Report or through the CSA’s National Registration Search.

So, what else can Canadians do to protect their investments?

Don’t be pressured. Fraudsters try to rush people into making decision without proper consideration. This is a tactic to be wary of.
Protect your online accounts. Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), create strong passwords, and avoid clicking on suspicious links or downloading attachments from unknown or suspicious emails.
Guard your personal information. Don’t share personal information on an unsolicited call—if you didn’t make the call, then do you really know who it is?
Do your research! Always verify the identity of the person or organization contacting you.

As investment scams become increasingly more complex, it is important for Canadian investors to remain vigilant, while building their knowledge of what kinds of scams are out there. Learn more about investment scams at the Office of the Investor’s hub on Avoiding Fraud and Protecting Your Investments.