Cybersecurity in Canada: A Closer Look at CAFC’s Shocking 2023 Fraud Loss Statistics
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has just released the fresh new cyberfraud loss statistics (traditionally reported as Mass Marketing Fraud*) for the year 2023! Here are 3 things worth noting:
- The CAFC indicates that due to underreporting, the numbers represent “less than 5%” of the actual figures. So be sure to sit down before you mentally double these numbers and add a zero.
- Reports are reflected not only from Canadian victims but also from other countries, which hints at the significant jurisdictional challenges faced by law enforcement.
- Not reflected in my screenshot is the fact that the past 2 years saw reported dollar losses of $283M and $420M (for 2021 and 2022 respectively).
December’s reported losses jumped by a considerable 25% from $28M in 2022 to the figure you see here: $35M. Adjusted for underreporting, that is a single month loss of $700 million by Canadian victims during the Christmas holidays.
I should mention that these figures do not factor in the entirety of holiday scam losses that are computed in the early months of each subsequent year.
*The term “mass-marketing fraud” generally refers to any fraud scheme that uses one or more mass-communication methods – such as the Internet, telephones, the mail, or in-person meetings.
This article originally appeared on claudiu.ca. This is also available as a presentation/speech/talk.
