A common phone scam popped up last week, with Morden Police reporting an individual receiving the Social Insurance Number related call.

The scam involves a call from either a 1-800 or local number, and the caller alleging to be a trusted government employee, indicating their Social Insurance Number has been compromised. The scam continues with the caller requesting personal information in order to rectify the issue, possibly threatening arrest if the information is not provided.

Meanwhile, Winkler Police report last week an individual alerted them they were a victim of a BitCoin Scam. The person had been texting a female he believed was an employee of an online trading company. The complainant had already sent a substantial amount of money to purchase Bitcoin before determining it was a scam.

Winkler Police also reported the gift card scam claimed another victim last week, receiving a report last Friday from someone scammed through a social media site.

The complainant received three cheques from the fraudster and was directed to deposit them into her account and use the money to buy Google Play gift cards. The victim was then instructed to send the numbers from the back of the gift-cards to the fraudster. It was later determined the cheques were not valid. With the fraudster having the numbers from the back of the cards, they are able to access the monetary value of those cards.