A story on the CTV News website describes a telephone scam targeting Westjet customers. Apparently, fraudulent calls are using the airline’s name in order to try to get people to provide their credit card information. The caller tells people they qualify for a free vacation because they fly with Westjet. The caller then asks for credit card information in order to secure the trip and pay a discounted hotel rate.
Interestingly, the story directs people to the Canadian Anti-fraud Centre, not to the CRTC.
According to Westjet, this is the third time this scam has surfaced. Apparently, it comes around every six months or so. Westjet says previous versions of this scam have been tracked to a Mexican vacation company.
Recall that almost exactly a year ago, the CRTC announced that it had reached a settlement with two Mexican vacation promoters. “The CRTC worked jointly with Mexico’s consumer protection agency, PROFECO, to bring its investigation to a successful conclusion.”
In my mind, the recurring Westjet scam raises the question of whether the regime for telemarketing rules is the best way to protect Canadians. Would Canadians receive any further protection if the anti-spam law had been proclaimed?
Are these legislative efforts creating additional red-tape and regulatory burden for legitimate companies without sufficient resources being dedicated to simply defending Canadians from fraud?
I continue to believe that Canada’s anti-spam legislation casts too broad a net, with the potential to inhibit the adoption of digital technologies by small business, failing to appropriately deal with the core problem impacting confidence in electronic commerce – simply, we should be aggressively targeting fraud.