Ontario man who almost fell for text scam issues warning to others

An Ontario man who nearly fell victim to a texting scam has issued a warning to others.

An Ontario man thought he had good news when he received a text message offering a $30 loyalty gift to a Giant Tiger store.

"I go to this store, so I clicked on the link and it said this is a customer appreciation award they're going to give people," Mark Martin of Simcoe, Ontario told CTV News Toronto.

When Martin clicked on the link in the text message, he was told he had to log into his bank account and provide his bank information before receiving the electronic transfer.

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The link took him to a site with a list of Canadian banks, including his own. At that moment, Martin realized he was suspicious and knew it was a scam.

"The bank page looked exactly like my bank, but when it comes to asking for banking information and personal information, that's exactly where you should be suspicious," Martin said.

A spokesperson for Giant Tiger confirmed that it is aware of fake scams impersonating itself and other reputable brands.

"I want to emphasize that the message this customer received was not from Giant Tiger," the statement said.

"This message, falsely claiming to be from our brand, is asking customers for banking information, something Giant Tiger never asks customers for. Valid promotions, contests and offers from Giant Tiger are always published on our website as well. "These types of scams are unfortunately becoming more common as bad guys try to use old, trusted brand names and lull people into a false sense of security."

Cybersecurity experts say criminals flood inboxes with scam messages posing as banks, shipping companies, Canada Post, Highway 407 ETR and Revenue Canada.

"Everyone should be very cautious when they receive unexpected texts and emails," said Nick Biazzini, head of communications at cybersecurity firm Cisco Talos.

"There are a lot of strange text messages going around that are also connected to fraudulent activity," Biazzini said.

Fraudsters hope to gain access to people's personal information or banking information in order to either break into bank accounts or steal someone's identity.

"If you get an email with an exclusive offer or a text message that sounds too good, it's definitely too good to be true and the bad guys behind it are trying to do something wrong," Biazzini said.

To protect yourself, don't click on unexpected links, protect your information carefully, don't participate in contests that ask for your personal information, don't save your passwords in your web browser, and use two-factor authentication.

Martin is glad he didn't fall victim to a scam and wanted to warn others.

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