Stage 03 · They build it
Why they pass every check, and the one thing they cannot fake
Start here Look at how you are being asked to pay
When people start to wonder, they check: the number, the name, the website, the statement. It all holds up, because this part of a scam is built to.
What the scammers are doing
Handing you things to check.
Correct details about you, a number that really rings, a screen with your money on it, a payment that actually arrives. And time, often weeks, sometimes years.
Why a scam works here
It was all made to be checked.
We think a doubt that checking settles leaves you surer than if you had never doubted at all, and that suits the scammer.
What stops a scam here
Looking at the money instead.
How you are being asked to pay is the one part they cannot prepare in advance, because you make the payment yourself.
What holds up when you check
Most approaches we have seen use a few of these, not all.
- Details about you that are right. The last four digits of a card, your address, something you bought last month. They came out of a breach, not out of a bank.
- A number that really rings. Your bank’s own number on the screen when the phone rings, which costs nothing to fake, and a number they give you that a real person answers, politely, in business hours.
- A name that checks out. Often a real, registered adviser’s name.
- A screen with your money on it. A balance, a chart, a figure that moves every day, on a site you can log into from home whenever you like.
- A payment that actually arrives. A withdrawal that works, or a first dividend.
- Paper. Statements, a contract, a badge number, a case number, letterhead. Nothing about a document is hard to make.
- Somebody else who confirms it. A supervisor put on the line, a lawyer, an accountant, a group of other investors who all say the same thing.
- Time. Weeks or months in which nothing at all is asked for.
By our estimate, time is the only one of these that costs scammers much to fake, and the time they spend tells you how much they expect to get.
Checking is not free.
A check built to come back clean settles your doubt. A doubt you never settled keeps you careful, and it is what you eventually mention to someone else. A doubt you settled does not come back.
The proof is made for one reader.
Everything at this stage was made for a person who already wants the story to be true.
Why checking does not catch it
Check something that could tell you no. Caller ID, a website and a statement are built to come back clean, so a clean result from them tells you nothing.
What to do, in the order we would start
Start here
None of these steps asks you to judge whether someone is honest.
Look at how you are being asked to pay
What to do. Before anything about the person, look at how the money moves. Scammers ask for these because the money is hard or impossible to get back once collected:
- Crypto, gift cards, or a reloadable card you are asked to put money on.
- A wire to a personal name, or an e‑Transfer to somebody you have never met.
- Cash handed over at the door.
- Cash carried to a post office and turned into money orders. Money orders are bought with cash or debit and capped at $999.99 each, but nothing stops anyone buying several.
- A transfer to a company you first heard of last week, or into an account at a bank you have never dealt with. That includes an account you are asked to open yourself so the money can be looked after or processed.
Why we think it works. Everything else in the scam was prepared in advance. The payment was not: you make it yourself, at your bank, so you see exactly how and where the money is going.
What it does not do. Tell you the person is dishonest. Real small businesses take e‑Transfers, and many people keep their savings at an online bank.
If you are asked to pay one of these ways. Send nothing yet, and show the request to one other person first.
Show the proof to one person, not the story
What to do. Put the dashboard, the email, the statement or the profile in front of one other person. Ask what they make of it, and let them take as long as they want.
Do not ask “am I being scammed”. That question asks for a verdict and starts an argument about you.
Why we think it works. A second person has no reason to want the story to be true.
What it does not do. Work if you describe the proof instead of showing it. When you describe it, you tell the version you have already accepted, and the other person hears a story that is consistent, because by now it has been made consistent.
Check the firm is registered, then call it on the number the registry lists
What to do. For anything involving investments, the Canadian Securities Administrators run a free national search at aretheyregistered.ca. It tells you whether a firm or a person is registered where you live, on what terms, and whether a regulator has disciplined them.
The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO), the body that oversees Canada’s investment dealers, runs an Advisor Report that does the same for advisers who work at one.
Then phone the firm. Use the number the registry lists, and ask whether the person who contacted you works there.
Why we think it works. This check can tell you no, and being unregistered ends the conversation on its own.
Why the callback matters. Regulators warn that the name given is frequently a real registered person’s, with a false email address or phone number attached.
What it does not do. Reach outside investments. The search proves only that somebody by that name is registered, not that you have been speaking to that person.
Worth doing
Narrower, or slower, or only useful once.
Ask to withdraw your whole balance from the investment
What to do. If there is a balance on a screen somewhere, ask to withdraw all of it, not a small amount as a test. The Anti-Fraud Centre says scammers sometimes let a small withdrawal through to get a larger deposit.
the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre where scams get reported nationally, which is not the same as being investigated
It gathers reports from across the country so that patterns can be seen. Your own case belongs to the local police force, and the Centre does not work it. It cannot move money either.
What to watch for. Anything that comes back in place of the money: a fee first, a tax first, a manager to speak to, a form, a delay, a better idea.
What it does not do. Get your money back. If the full withdrawal will not go through, what is there has already gone. You find that out now rather than after the next deposit.
Write down what you were told, with the date
What it does. A story that runs for months changes, and you tend to remember only the latest version. A dated note shows what you were told before.
What it does not do. Catch anybody, or feel like anything at the time.
Often suggested, does less than you would think
Each one comes back clean for a scammer.
Looking at the website
A website with a padlock, an address, a phone number and a page about the founders takes an afternoon to build.
The padlock means only that the connection is private, not that the company is real.
Asking for a video call, or searching the photo
Both were real checks for a long time. Searching for the photo elsewhere online still sometimes finds something, but neither check settles whether the person is real any more.
Looking for holes in the story
By this stage the story is consistent, because producing a consistent story is most of what the stage is. Finding no holes is the expected result, not evidence that the story is true.
Searches you can run yourself, free
- Canadian Securities Administrators, National Registration Search. aretheyregistered.ca. Whether a firm or an individual is registered to advise or trade where you live, any conditions on it, and disciplinary history.
- CIRO, Advisor Report. The background, qualifications and disciplinary record of an adviser at an investment dealer. It does not cover an adviser at a mutual fund dealer, or anyone who has left the industry.
- The securities regulator for your province or territory. Listed on the Canadian Securities Administrators’ Reporting wrongdoing page. Some publish a warning list, such as Alberta’s Investment Caution List. A warning list names only what is already known, so a name missing from it proves nothing.
If money has already gone, call your bank first: I think I have been scammed.