Scams · · 4 min read
The fraud centre will not charge you to get your money back
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says people are using its name and logo to run bank-investigator and recovery scams. It does not call you to collect a fee.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says it is still seeing more reports of people pretending to be the centre. They call, email, or message on social media. They say they are from the centre, or working with it on an investigation. They use the centre’s name, its logo, or fake documents.
The centre’s July 2026 note splits the reports into two scripts. Neither one is a real investigation, and neither one ends with your money coming back because you paid a fee.
The bank investigator who name-drops the centre
Someone says they are a fraud investigator from your bank, a card company, or another business you would recognize. There are unauthorized transactions, or your banking information is compromised. To make that believable, they say they are working with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Some send a letter or an email that carries the centre’s logo, plus a phone number and an email address that are theirs, not the centre’s.
They may ask you to:
- give them debit or credit card information
- move money to a “safe” account
- send money to help the investigation
- keep the investigation quiet
The centre says these requests are fraudulent, and that once the money is sent it is often difficult or impossible to get back. A logo on a PDF does not change that. Anyone can paste a logo.
The bank-investigator call, without the centre’s name attached, is already a large share of what Canadians report. The figures and the tells are in how leaked data makes phishing personal. This note is the narrower fact: the anti-fraud centre’s own name is now part of the script.
The second call, after you already lost money
If you have already been defrauded, the same note says you may be contacted again by someone who claims they can recover the funds. They may pretend to be the centre, the police, or another government agency. They may say they have found your money, or that an investigation needs your help to release it. The documents, again, may use the logo, or they may simply say the centre is on the case.
The payment they ask for has ordinary names:
- an administrative fee
- taxes or legal costs
- a security deposit
- a cryptocurrency or wire-transfer fee
The centre’s line is flat. If someone asks you to pay money in order to recover money you already lost, it is a fraud.
That is the whole recovery scam. The details of your earlier loss, which the caller may know, are not proof they are the centre. Those details are what the first scam already collected. Knowing them is how the second call sounds informed.
What the centre says it will never do
The centre, and the police, will never:
- ask you to transfer money or make a payment
- ask for remote access to your computer or phone
- ask for your banking information, passwords, or verification codes
- ask you to take part in an investigation by sending money
A caller who does any of those is not the centre, whatever the call display says and whatever is in the letterhead.
What to do
- Hang up. Do not argue, and do not use the number, the email, or the website they just gave you.
- If they mentioned your bank, call the number on the back of your card. That is the centre’s instruction. A “safe account” they name is not your bank’s account.
- If you are not sure the centre itself called, use the contact information on its own site. The July note points you there rather than to a number in the message. The site is antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca.
- If you sent money or card details, call your bank or card issuer now, then report it to local police and to the centre. The centre says recovery is often difficult or impossible. Waiting to see if the promised refund arrives is how the delay gets longer.
- If you already lost money once, treat a recovery offer as the next attempt, not as help. No fee, deposit, or transfer releases the first amount.
You can still report a real fraud to the centre. You start that contact. They do not start it by asking you to pay.
Sources
- Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre impersonation, July 2026
- Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, home page
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About once a month. Plain-language privacy notes, nothing else. I never share your address.