Online Fraud in Canada 2026
Canada is in the grip of a fraud crisis that keeps breaking its own records. According to the CAFC 2025 Annual Report — released in early 2026 — Canadians lost a record $704 million to fraud in 2025, the highest annual total in CAFC history and a 10% increase from the $638–643 million reported in 2024. That $704 million is, however, a severe undercount. Only 5–10% of fraud victims ever report to the CAFC (Statistics Canada) — meaning the true 2025 toll likely exceeds $7 billion and could reach $14 billion. The CAFC recorded 108,878 reports in 2024 involving at least 34,621 confirmed victims. Investment fraud led all categories in 2025 at $351 million, followed by relationship/romance scams at $63.3 million and job scams at $50.6 million. The loss trajectory has been relentless: $165 million in 2020, $383 million in 2021, $530 million in 2022, $567 million in 2023, $638 million in 2024, and $704 million in 2025 — a 326% increase in five years.
The federal government has acknowledged the scale. In October 2025, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced Canada’s first-ever National Anti-Fraud Strategy alongside a new Financial Crimes Agency — the first time Canadian policy has treated financial cybercrime as a “national economic threat” rather than a consumer nuisance. Proposed Bank Act amendments would require financial institutions to detect and prevent consumer fraud, obtain express consent before enabling high-risk account functions, and implement a new Economic Abuse Code of Conduct. In May 2026, the Toronto Police Service and RCMP jointly arrested three individuals for using an SMS blaster — a device capable of impersonating legitimate cellular base stations to bombard thousands of nearby devices with fraudulent text messages — a visible sign that enforcement is beginning to catch up with the infrastructure enabling smishing campaigns at scale.
Interesting Facts: Online Fraud Statistics in Canada 2026
| Fact | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total fraud losses reported to CAFC (2025) | $704 million — record high |
| Total fraud losses reported to CAFC (2024) | $638–643 million |
| 5-year loss increase (2020–2025) | 326% ($165M to $704M) |
| CAFC reports received (2024) | 108,878 |
| Confirmed victims of fraud (2024) | At least 34,621 |
| Estimated true annual losses (2025, 5–10% reporting rate) | $7 billion–$14 billion+ |
| Share of fraud incidents reported to CAFC | Only 5–10% |
| Canadians experiencing fraud per year (2019 GSS estimate) | 2.5 million |
| Investment fraud losses (2025, CAFC) | $351 million |
| Relationship/romance scam losses (2025, CAFC) | $63.3 million+ |
| Job scam losses (2025, CAFC) | $50.6 million+ |
| Cyber-enabled fraud share of total losses (2024) | $481.6 million (75%) |
| Spear phishing + BEC losses (2024, CAFC) | $67.3 million |
| Investment fraud share of total losses (2024) | 49% |
| Senior (60+) share of total losses (2024) | 40.3% |
| Average loss per senior fraud victim (2024) | $21,604 |
| Average crypto payment per fraud transaction (2024) | $23,815 CAD |
| Police-reported cybercrime rate (2024) | 225.1 per 100,000 (2x the 2018 rate of 91.9) |
| Police-reported cybercrime rate (2018, comparison) | 91.9 per 100,000 |
| Fraud as % of all police-reported cybercrimes (2024) | 46,301 incidents — nearly half |
| BC police-reported cybercrime rate (highest provincial, 2024) | 423.0 per 100,000 |
| Nunavut police-reported cybercrime rate (lowest, 2024) | 114.2 per 100,000 |
| Business cybercrime recovery costs (2023) | $1.2 billion — double 2021 |
| CAFC cumulative losses since 2021 surpassed | $2 billion |
| Identity fraud reports to CAFC (2024) | 9,683 — highest-volume fraud type |
| National Anti-Fraud Strategy announced | October 2025 — Finance Minister Champagne |
| TPS/RCMP SMS blaster arrests | May 2026 — 3 individuals charged |
Source: CAFC 2025 Annual Report (money.ca summary, May 7, 2026); CAFC 2024 Annual Statistical Report (antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca); Canada.ca — Fraud Prevention Month 2025 (February 2025); RCMP Gazette — Cost of Fraud (March 2025); Statistics Canada cybercrime data 2025 (via discreetinvestigations.ca cybercrime statistics Canada 2026, May 4, 2026); FCAC data story (fcac-research-recherche-acfc.canada.ca); BNN Bloomberg / badsecurity.ca January 24, 2026
The $704 million CAFC-reported loss in 2025 — while a record — is at the conservative end of what analysts believe actually occurred. A cybersecurity expert who appeared on BNN Bloomberg in January 2026 estimated the true toll could be $12 billion or more, applying the CAFC’s own “up to 5% reporting rate” estimate to the $643 million 2024 figure. At a 5% reporting rate, the $704 million 2025 reported total would imply $14 billion in actual losses. These are not theoretical extrapolations — the 2019 General Social Survey, which used population-level victimisation methodology rather than voluntary reporting, found 2.5 million Canadians had experienced fraud in a single year. CAFC received roughly 67,000 Canadian reports that year, implying a gap of approximately 37 to 1 between actual victims and those who contacted the centre.
The 75% cyber-enabled fraud share of 2024 losses — $481.6 million of $643 million — quantifies how central the internet is to modern fraud. CAFC spokesperson Jeff Horncastle described an evolving 2025 pattern in which scams span multiple types: a job scam draws in a victim, transitions to a crypto-investment scheme, then shifts to a romance dynamic as trust builds. These multi-phase campaigns run for weeks or months, involving elaborate false personas, fabricated platforms, and AI-generated communications — reflected in rising average loss per victim as cases involve fewer but more severely harmed individuals.
Investment Fraud in Canada 2026
Investment Fraud Losses — Canada (CAFC Annual Reports, 2021–2025)
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2021 |████████████████████████████████████████████████| $383M total / ~$188M investment (est.)
2022 |████████████████████████████████████████████████| $530M total / investment % dominant
2023 |████████████████████████████████████████████████| $567M total / investment % dominant
2024 |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| $638M total / $313M investment
2025 |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| $704M total / $351M investment
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Investment fraud = 49% of 2024 total losses; 5th consecutive year as most costly category
$351M in 2025 — up from $313M in 2024 (+12%)
Source: CAFC 2024 and 2025 Annual Reports
| Investment Fraud Metric | 2024 Data | 2025 Data |
|---|---|---|
| Investment fraud losses | $313 million | $351 million |
| Share of total losses | 49% | ~50% |
| Consecutive years as most costly category | 5th straight year | 6th straight year |
| Primary scheme type | Fake crypto platforms, fraudulent trading portals, pig butchering | Same + AI-enhanced |
| Typical fraud arc | Build trust → introduce platform → show returns → request more funds → disappear | — |
| Crypto average transaction loss | $23,815 CAD | — |
| Canadians in Facebook case (2021 case returned $225K) | 1 victim — $355,000 lost | — |
| Investment fraud victimization rate | High (exact % varies) | — |
| Common entry points | Social media, dating apps, text messages, email | — |
| Pig butchering scam dynamic | Long-term trust-building → crypto investment platform → staged profits → blocked withdrawals | — |
Source: CAFC 2024 Annual Statistical Report; CAFC 2025 data cited in money.ca May 7, 2026; RCMP Gazette March 2025; Canada.ca Fraud Prevention Month 2025
Investment fraud has been the single most costly fraud category in Canada for six consecutive years (2020–2025), claiming the largest share of reported losses every year despite representing a fraction of total fraud case volume. The dominance of investment fraud by dollar value reflects the particular brutality of “pig butchering” schemes — a term borrowed from Chinese criminal operations (杀猪盘, shā zhū pán) that involves an extended trust-building phase before the financial exploitation begins. Victims — often approached on social media platforms, dating apps, or via unsolicited text messages — are cultivated for weeks or months through what feels like a genuine personal or professional relationship, then introduced to a fraudulent investment platform.
The platforms appear legitimate: they show growing balances, allow early small withdrawals, and present polished interfaces with fabricated trading data. Once victims invest larger sums, withdrawals are blocked on pretexts — taxes owed, verification fees — before the fraudster disappears. Cryptocurrency is the payment method of choice at an average of $23,815 CAD per transaction, because crypto transactions are difficult to reverse or trace internationally. Recovery is rare: a $225,000 of $355,000 lost return to a Facebook-targeted Toronto victim in December 2024 by the RCMP, CAFC, and TPS was exceptional, not routine.
Romance Scams and Impersonation Fraud in Canada in 2026
Romance and Relationship Scam Losses — Canada (CAFC 2024–2025)
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Relationship scam losses 2024 |████████████████████████████████████████| $42.5M+ (30+ age group)
Relationship scam losses 2025 |████████████████████████████████████████████████| $63.3M+
Job scam losses 2025 |████████████████████████████████████████ | $50.6M+
Bank Investigator fraud (2024 v rate) |████████████████████████████████████████| +16.5% victimization increase
Phishing victimization rate (2024) |████████████████████████████████████ | +6.8% increase
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Impersonation fraud: fastest growing in 2025 (Fraud Prevention Month theme)
Source: CAFC 2024 and 2025 Annual Reports; Canada.ca
| Romance / Impersonation Fraud Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Relationship/romance scam losses (2025) | $63.3 million+ |
| Relationship/romance scam losses (2024, 30+ age group) | $42.5 million |
| Job scam losses (2025) | $50.6 million+ |
| Job scam losses growth (2024 vs 2023) | +$17 million |
| Bank Investigator fraud victimization increase (2024) | +16.5% |
| Phishing victimization rate increase (2024) | +6.8% |
| Impersonation fraud theme | Fraud Prevention Month 2025 focus — “fastest growing” |
| Top impersonated entities | Banks, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Canada Post, Amazon |
| Multi-phase scam pattern | Job scam → crypto investment scam → romance dynamic |
| Smishing (SMS phishing) growth | Sharp increase noted by CAFC in 2025–26 |
| SMS blasters arrested (May 2026) | 3 individuals — TPS/RCMP joint operation |
| AI-generated phishing messages | LLMs now used to generate personalised phishing at scale (CCCS NCTA 2025–2026) |
Source: CAFC 2024 Annual Statistical Report; CAFC 2025 data (money.ca May 7, 2026); Canada.ca Fraud Prevention Month 2025; CCCS National Cyber Threat Assessment 2025–2026
Impersonation fraud was designated the theme of Fraud Prevention Month 2025 by the CAFC and its government partners as the fastest-growing fraud category — a designation reflecting how pervasively criminals now impersonate trusted institutions. The Bank of Canada, CRA, and major banks are the most frequently impersonated entities in fraud scenarios targeting Canadians, because the combination of financial authority and threat of legal or regulatory consequence creates the emotional conditions — fear, urgency, compliance pressure — under which people make financial decisions they would never otherwise make. Bank Investigator fraud, in which a caller impersonates the victim’s bank’s fraud department to extract account credentials or authorise transfers, recorded a 16.5% victimization rate increase in 2024 — the largest increase of any category in the top 10.
Smishing — phishing conducted via SMS text messages — has grown sharply in Canada partly due to the proliferation of AI tools that enable fraudsters to generate personalised, grammatically correct, contextually convincing messages at industrial scale. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS) noted in its National Cyber Threat Assessment 2025–2026 that threat actors are now using large language models to generate personalised messages and deepfakes, with social engineering attacks against Canadian targets becoming “harder to detect.” The May 2026 TPS/RCMP arrest of three individuals using an SMS blaster — a device that impersonates legitimate cellular base stations and can bombard thousands of nearby devices with fraudulent text messages — is a visible example of enforcement catching up, but also a confirmation that the technology enabling fraud has matured to the level of physical criminal infrastructure.
Fraud by Age Group in Canada in 2026
Fraud Loss Share by Age Group — Canada (CAFC 2024)
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Seniors 60+ (23% of population) |████████████████████████████████████████████████| 40.3% of losses
Adults 50–59 |████████████████████████████████████████ | Significant share
Adults 30–49 |███████████████████████████████████████ | Major romance scam losses
Adults 19 and under |████████████████████ | Highest victimization rate
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Seniors average loss per victim: $21,604 CAD
Adults 19 and under: most likely to BE victimized (but smaller dollar losses)
Source: CAFC 2024 Annual Report
| Age-Related Fraud Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Seniors (60+) share of total losses (2024) | 40.3% |
| Seniors share of Canadian population | ~23% |
| Average loss per senior victim (2024) | $21,604 CAD |
| Adults aged 30+ romance scam losses (2024) | $42.5 million |
| Individuals aged 19 and under | Most likely age group to be victimized (CAFC 2024) |
| Adults over 50 | Lose more money on average per fraud event |
| Investment fraud peak age group | 50+ (highest dollar losses per victim) |
| CRA impersonation most common victims | Older adults; immigrants unfamiliar with Canadian tax norms |
| Teen victimization primary fraud type | Job scams; sextortion; social media impersonation |
Source: CAFC 2024 Annual Statistical Report; Canada.ca Fraud Prevention Month 2025; RCMP Gazette March 2025; discreetinvestigations.ca Fraud Statistics Canada, May 2026
The 40.3% of losses absorbed by Canadians aged 60+ is the most concentrated age-related finding in the CAFC dataset. Seniors combine characteristics that make them high-value targets: accumulated savings, established bank relationships, relative unfamiliarity with digital red flags, and social isolation. The $21,604 average loss per senior victim is approximately 40% higher than the overall average across all age groups, confirming that fraudsters extract larger sums from older victims.
The finding that Canadians aged 19 and under are the most likely age group to be victimized — while absorbing smaller per-victim dollar losses — reflects a different fraud profile. Teenagers and young adults are disproportionately targeted by job scams (which exploit the urgency of early-career income needs), sextortion (a rapidly growing category where intimate images are obtained through manipulation and then used for financial extortion), and social media impersonation schemes. The CCCS noted in the 2025–2026 National Cyber Threat Assessment that social engineering attacks are becoming harder to detect precisely as the demographic most likely to be first contacted online — younger Canadians — becomes the primary initial target of scalable, AI-enhanced campaigns.
Fraud by Province in Canada 2026
Key Provincial Fraud Metrics — Canada (Statistics Canada 2024 / CAFC 2024)
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British Columbia |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Highest police-reported cybercrime rate: 423.0/100,000
Alberta |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Highest self-reported fraud victimization: 22%
Ontario |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Highest absolute number of fraud reports to CAFC
Quebec |████████████████████████████████████████████████ | Second highest absolute reports
Yukon |████████████████████████████████████████████████ | Highest CAFC per-capita report rate
Nunavut |██████████ | Lowest police-reported cybercrime rate: 114.2/100,000
Largest cities |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| 237.7/100,000 vs 186.8 in smaller towns
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Source: Statistics Canada 2024 UCR / 2025 data; CAFC 2024; discreetinvestigations.ca May 2026
| Provincial Fraud Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| BC — police-reported cybercrime rate (2024) | 423.0 per 100,000 — highest provincially |
| Nunavut — police-reported cybercrime rate (2024) | 114.2 per 100,000 — lowest |
| Alberta — self-reported fraud victimization rate | 22% — highest of any province |
| Yukon — CAFC per-capita report rate | Highest of any jurisdiction |
| Largest Canadian cities cybercrime rate (2024) | 237.7 per 100,000 |
| Smaller Canadian towns cybercrime rate (2024) | 186.8 per 100,000 |
| National police-reported fraud violations (2024) | 46,301 incidents (nearly half of all police-reported cybercrimes) |
| Fraud share of all police-reported cybercrimes (2024) | ~47% |
| Police-reported fraud rate (2024) | 500 per 100,000 population |
| Police-reported fraud rate (2010, comparison) | 256 per 100,000 |
| 2010 to 2024 fraud rate increase | ~95% |
Source: Statistics Canada UCR 2024 (via discreetinvestigations.ca cybercrime statistics Canada 2026, May 4, 2026); CAFC 2024 Annual Statistical Report
British Columbia’s police-reported cybercrime rate of 423.0 per 100,000 — nearly double the national average of 225.1 — is a persistent outlier that reflects the province’s high technology sector concentration, large port economy, and disproportionate representation of high-income households with significant investable assets. Large cities in BC, particularly Vancouver and surrounding municipalities, are also major entry points for investment and property fraud targeting both residents and non-residents. Alberta’s 22% self-reported fraud victimization rate is the highest of any Canadian province, a finding from population-level survey methodology rather than police reporting — which captures a broader pool of fraud events including those never brought to authorities.
The national police-reported fraud rate doubling from 256 to 500 per 100,000 between 2010 and 2024 is among the most dramatic trend lines in Canadian crime statistics. This increase reflects both rising fraud incidence and, to some degree, improved reporting rates and police data collection. The 2024 peak and 2024 decline of 9% in the broader cybercrime rate from the 2023 high — noted by Statistics Canada — is interpreted by analysts with caution: the more expensive-per-incident, harder-to-detect investment fraud schemes may be driving a pattern where absolute incident counts decline while dollar damage continues rising, exactly the “fewer but more damaging incidents” pattern that Statistics Canada itself documented in the business sector data.
Canada’s Anti-Fraud Policy Response in 2026
Canada Anti-Fraud Enforcement and Policy Actions (2024–2026)
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Oct 2025 |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| National Anti-Fraud Strategy announced (Champagne)
Oct 2025 |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Financial Crimes Agency announced
Late 2025 |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Bank Act amendments proposed (fraud detection obligations)
Dec 2024 |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| $225K returned to 2021 Toronto romance fraud victim
May 2026 |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| TPS/RCMP arrest 3 for SMS blaster fraud device
2026 |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| CCCS NCTA 2025–2026 warns of AI-enhanced social engineering
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CAFC: jointly managed by RCMP, Competition Bureau, and Ontario Provincial Police
National Cybercrime Coordination Centre (NC3) operational since 2020
Source: Canada.ca; RCMP Gazette; badsecurity.ca; money.ca May 2026
| Policy / Enforcement Action | Date / Data |
|---|---|
| National Anti-Fraud Strategy announced | October 2025 — Finance Minister Champagne |
| New Financial Crimes Agency | Announced October 2025 |
| Bank Act amendments proposed | Require banks to detect/prevent fraud; express consent for high-risk functions |
| Economic Abuse Code of Conduct | Proposed — protect victims of financial control/exploitation |
| TPS/RCMP SMS blaster arrests | May 2026 — 3 individuals charged |
| $225K returned to romance fraud victim | December 2024 — TPS, RCMP, CAFC joint operation |
| CAFC management structure | RCMP + Competition Bureau + Ontario Provincial Police |
| NC3 (National Cybercrime Coordination Centre) | Operational since 2020; coordinates cross-jurisdiction response |
| CCCS NCTA 2025–2026 warning | AI-generated phishing; LLMs enabling personalised attacks at scale |
| Canada Fraud Prevention Month | March annually — #FPM2025 campaign |
| CAFC reporting | Online or 1-888-495-8501 |
| CAFC cumulative reported losses since 2021 | Surpassed $2 billion |
Source: Canada.ca Fraud Prevention Month 2025; badsecurity.ca January 24, 2026; money.ca May 7, 2026; RCMP Gazette March 2025; CCCS NCTA 2025–2026
The October 2025 National Anti-Fraud Strategy is the most significant policy commitment Canada has made to combating financial fraud in the digital era. For years, the CAFC operated as a reporting and intelligence centre without power to compel institutions to act preventively. The proposed Bank Act amendments — requiring banks to detect and prevent consumer fraud proactively — would shift from a reactive to a proactive regulatory model. Champagne explicitly named banks, telecoms, and technology companies as parties who must “step up”, expanding obligations well beyond banking alone.
The $2 billion in cumulative CAFC-reported losses since 2021 — a figure the federal government noted in the Fraud Prevention Month 2025 campaign — is the political context driving policy urgency. That $2 billion floor on a four-year period, when extrapolated against the 5–10% reporting rate, implies $20–$40 billion in actual losses over four years — equivalent to a significant fraction of Canada’s entire annual federal health spending. The CAFC spokesperson’s description of fraud as now involving “scams becoming longer and spanning multiple scam types” — moving from job scams to crypto investment schemes to romance dynamics within a single victim relationship — captures the evolution that has made financial crime in Canada qualitatively different from the phone and mail fraud of previous decades. Every successful scam today is a data point that AI systems learn from, making the next generation of attacks harder to detect than the one that preceded it.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
