The Owen Sound Police Service receives numerous calls daily from citizens enquiring about scammers and fraudsters that have contacted them via telephone or on their electronic devices. The federal government is aware of these scams and actively investigates and tracks them.

The latest incidents of trickery involve text messages, emails or telephone calls that invite the citizen to sign up for a fictitious job that requires them to have their vehicle decaled with advertising with the promise of a three to four hundred dollar per week reimbursement for simply driving their car around town. The ruse requires the citizen to receive a check from the fraudster with instructions to counter-sign the rear of the check, deposit it into their personal account and to accept three hundred dollars of the fraud as a first 'paycheck'. The remainder of the money is to be transferred to a fraudulent account set up by the scammers. The citizen is then told that a decal company will contact them to place advertising on their vehicle. The decal company never calls.

We encourage residents to hang-up the phone immediately or delete the messages and report it to the government on their website www.cra.gc.ca/fraudprevention.

In cases where you have been a victim of fraud and have lost money to this or any other scam, please contact the Owen Sound Police at 519-376-1234.

source: media release, Owen Sound Police Services