Conversations That Matter: Billions lost to online fraudon April 4, 2025 at 2:00 pm

Canadians are losing billions to online investment fraud, according to Pamela McDonald of the B.C. Securities Commission. Read More

Canadians are losing billions to online investment fraud, according to Pamela McDonald of the B.C. Securities Commission. The perpetrator of the fraud is criminals using artificial intelligence and it’s happening online. McDonald says, “These fraudsters hide behind layers of technology and we can’t get to them. It’s offshore organized crime.” To make matters worse, McDonald

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Canadians are losing billions to online investment fraud, according to Pamela McDonald of the B.C. Securities Commission.

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The perpetrator of the fraud is criminals using artificial intelligence and it’s happening online.

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McDonald says, “These fraudsters hide behind layers of technology and we can’t get to them. It’s offshore organized crime.”

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To make matters worse, McDonald says, “the traditional enforcement tools of investigating, prosecuting and sanctioning don’t work in this environment — for us or for other law enforcement agencies.”

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That means as an online investor you’re on your own.

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The Securities Commission says that “self awareness, diligence and education are powerful defensive tools.”

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The Securities Commission has taken an edgy, bold, and “out there” public awareness campaign to draw attention to a problem that AI investment scams are creating. It created a music video to raise awareness about the online scams it says are “creating massive social harm.” You can see the video online. It’s labelled We are all f — ked.”

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McDonald joined Conversation That Matters to discuss the AI threats that online investors are being bombarded with and what they can do to defend themselves.