The Conexus Credit Union is shining a light on the cybercrime during Cyber Security Awareness Month.

Three of the most common cyber scams right now are investor scams, overpayment scams, and verification code scams.

Investor scams promise high returns that seem too good to be true and will sometimes send a “return” to gain more trust and more of the victim’s money.

Overpayment scams see a fraudster buy a listed item, claim they accidentally sent too much money and ask the seller to refund the difference, before the original payment is flagged as fraud. The scam leaves the seller without there item and without their money.

A Verification scam sees the victim get sent a one-time verification code they didn’t request. Once a scammer has access to the code, they can take control of that person’s account.

Conexus Chief Risk and Compliance Officer Mark Millham say that only between five and 10 per cent of scams are ever reported.

“Unfortunately, scammers target and defraud every age group in our province. It is a misconception that scammers only defraud the senior citizen generation.”

Millham encourages people to brush up on their cyber security practices. Some practices include the three R’s – recognizing, rejecting, and reporting, setting up strong passwords, setting up alerts with financial institutes, and being hypervigilant.

More details on what scams look like and what to do when scammed can be found on the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security website.