The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (formerly known as PhoneBusters National Call Centre) is

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

's national anti-fraud call centre and central fraud data repository. It was established in January 1993 in

North Bay, Ontario North Bay is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is the seat of Nipissing District, Ontario, Nipissing District, and takes its name from its position on the shore of Lake Nipissing. North Bay developed as a railroad centre, and its airpo ...

, and is jointly operated by the

Ontario Provincial Police The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. Under its provincial mandate, the OPP patrols provincial highways and waterways, protects provincial government buildings and officials, patrols unincor ...

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

and the

Competition Bureau The Competition Bureau (french: Bureau de la concurrence) is the competition regulator in Canada. It is an independent Canadian law enforcement agency that ensures that markets operate in a competitive, innovative manner. Headed by the Commi ...

. The original mandate of PhoneBusters was to prosecute key individuals in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

and

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

involved in

telemarketing fraud Telemarketing fraud is fraudulent selling conducted over the telephone. The term is also used for telephone fraud ''not'' involving selling. Telemarketing fraud is one of the most persuasive deceptions identified by the Federal Trade Commissio ...

under the ''

Criminal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that migh ...

''. Its mandate now includes gathering intelligence and receiving complaints on

mass marketing fraud Mass-marketing fraud (or mass market fraud) is a scheme that uses mass-communication media – including telephones, the Internet, mass mailings, television, radio, and personal contact – to contact, solicit, and obtain money, funds, or other i ...

(i.e. Nigerian Letter scam),

identity theft Identity theft occurs when someone uses another person's personal identifying information, like their name, identifying number, or credit card number, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. The term ''identity theft'' was c ...

, deceptive marketing practices and telemarketing frauds. Once received, the centre analyzes the data, disseminate victim evidence, statistics, documentation and prepare reports for other law enforcement agencies in Canada and

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

to follow up. It also educates and provides awareness campaign on fraud prevention and

telemarketing Telemarketing (sometimes known as inside sales, or telesales in the UK and Ireland) is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subseque ...

pitches, particularly in March (Fraud Awareness Month) to prevent future victimization.

References

External links

Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre
{{authority control Federal departments and agencies of Canada Fraud in Canada 1993 establishments in Ontario