Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre: fraud reporting and alerts explained

What the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) is the national reporting body for fraud and cybercrime in Canada. It receives reports from individuals, businesses, and organizations, and uses them to build a national picture of how fraud is carried out and who it affects. It is a central point of contact rather than a local police service.

The CAFC does not investigate individual cases, recover lost money, or lay charges. Its work is to collect reports, analyze patterns, and share findings with law enforcement and regulators. That makes its published alerts a useful reference, but not a substitute for contacting your bank, transfer provider, or police when a transfer goes wrong.

What the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre publishes

The CAFC's public material covers fraud types and current scams. It describes how common schemes work, the warning signs that appear, and the steps a person can take when they suspect fraud. It also explains how to report and what details are useful to include.

The centre publishes fraud alerts, bulletins, and periodic statistics on reports received and reported losses. These figures cover specific reporting periods and are updated as new data is released, so the current numbers are always found at the source rather than reproduced on a secondary page.

• Fraud alerts and bulletins about active scams
• Descriptions of common fraud types
• Warning signs and prevention tips
• Reporting instructions and what details to include
• Periodic statistics on reports received and losses reported
• Guidance aimed at particular audiences and fraud types

Why the CAFC matters for international transfers from Canada

Money sent abroad leaves Canada's banking system and becomes much harder to recover. Fraud involving international transfers often begins with a phone call, email, text message, or social media contact asking for money for an emergency, an investment, a purchase, or a relationship.

CAFC alerts and fraud descriptions help readers recognize these patterns. Common warning signs include urgency, requests to keep the transfer secret, instructions to send money to a person you have not met, and payment requests that bypass the normal protections attached to card or account purchases.

Checking the CAFC is one layer of protection. Consumers should also verify the recipient independently, confirm the provider is properly registered, and understand how fees and exchange rates are handled before sending. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada publishes plain-language guidance on these points.

How to use the CAFC before and after sending money

Before sending money, read current fraud alerts and search for the type of request you have received. If the person or offer matches a known scheme, that is a strong reason to stop and verify. Being pushed to act quickly is itself a common sign of fraud.

If you believe you have been defrauded, report it to the CAFC through its official channels and contact your bank or transfer provider immediately. Also contact local police. Reporting early can help your financial institution act, and it contributes data that may protect other people.

Keep records of the transaction: dates, amounts, currency, the recipient's details, messages, and any reference numbers. These details support both a fraud report and any dispute process the transfer provider offers, and they are easier to collect while the transaction is still fresh.

• Check the CAFC's current fraud alerts
• Verify the recipient through a separate, trusted contact method
• Ask your provider how it handles disputes and recalls
• Keep messages, receipts, and transaction references
• Report suspected fraud promptly to the CAFC, your provider, and police

Key terms used by the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre

Fraud reporting uses a small set of recurring terms. Understanding them makes alerts easier to read and helps you describe what happened when you file a report with the CAFC, your bank, or the police. The definitions below are plain-language summaries of terms that appear often.

How the CAFC relates to other Canadian bodies

The CAFC handles fraud reporting and public alerts. Other Canadian organizations handle regulation, consumer guidance, and tax. They work alongside each other rather than as a single service, so it helps to know which body covers what before you rely on it.

FINTRAC registers money services businesses and sets anti-money-laundering requirements for them. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada explains consumer rights and how to send money. OSFI supervises federally regulated financial institutions. The Canada Revenue Agency covers how foreign income and foreign property are reported.

For travel-related risk, Global Affairs Canada publishes country advisories. For exchange-rate values used in records and tax calculations, the Bank of Canada publishes daily reference rates. These sources support the same practical question: whether a transfer is safe, legal, and properly documented.

How often this information changes and how to verify it

Fraud warnings change as new schemes appear, and published statistics cover fixed reporting periods. Any figure printed on a secondary page can become outdated quickly, which is why this page does not state live numbers and points to the source instead.

To confirm current information, go directly to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre website for alerts and published statistics. For consumer guidance on transfers, use the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. For exchange rates, use the Bank of Canada's daily rates.

When you cite a figure in your own writing or reporting, link to the original page and note the period it covers. That keeps the number attached to its source and makes clear when it was current, which matters for fraud statistics in particular.