It started with a phone call while the victim was working.
The caller identified themselves as an employee at the victim’s bank, and he knew his name, the last four digits of his account and where he lives.
That’s how a recent $20,000 fraud reported to Toronto police began.
Det. Dave Coffey says it’s a typical example of the roughly 50 fraud reports the service’s central fraud office receives every single day. So far this year, there’s been nearly $224 million in reported fraud losses in Toronto, with residents on pace to lose $560 million in 2026 — up more than $130 million from 2025.
Nationally, reported losses to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre totalled more than $704 million last year. But that figure comes with a couple of big caveats. The centre estimates only about five to 10 per cent of fraud is reported, and their numbers don’t include police reports from services like Toronto and the Ontario Provincial Police.
While frauds themselves continue to evolve, Coffey and a scam psychology expert say the emotional manipulation behind them largely stays the same — so knowing how those pressure tactics work, and paying attention to how you’re feeling, could be the key to avoiding being scammed.
How scammers manipulate our emotions — and what you can do to protect yourself
“The stories are infinite. So to put out an alert every single day of the year … be aware of this scam, be aware of this scam — people are going to be numb to them,” Coffey said.
“It’s the emotions that people have to be aware of.”
So let’s use Coffey’s example of the call from someone claiming to be from the victim’s bank to break down the psychological anatomy of a fraud.
The caller provides the victim’s name, bank account number and knows where they live.
Providing all of this information works to do one thing: establish trust, according to researcher Martina Dove, author of The Psychology of Fraud, Persuasion and Scam Techniques.
“If they are not perceived as trustworthy, we will be skeptical, we will be more vigilant, and therefore we will be watching for the red flags,” she said.
“They will try and establish credibility very early on.”
