February 14, 2025
Woman out $20K after call display spoofing scam
Mazher is not the first person to fall victim to what police are calling a call-display spoofing scam, a technique that tricks people into thinking the phone call is coming from a legitimate source.
Mazher is not the first person to fall victim to what police are calling a call-display spoofing scam, a technique that tricks people into thinking the phone call is coming from a legitimate source.

TORONTO — A Milton, Ont. woman was scammed out of $20,000 after someone claiming to be a criminal investigator in Ottawa and an officer with Halton police called her warning that her SIN card had been compromised.

Sadia Mazher, a mother of three children, said she was called in the middle of her work shift at a medical clinic and was told that her SIN card number had been hacked.

“I was so nervous. I was so shocked. I asked multiple times if he would let me talk to my husband but he said because there was fraud against my SIN card I could not talk to anyone because it might not be safe,” she said.

The 45-year-old was told by the caller to leave work immediately without talking to anyone. If someone asked her where she was going, she was simply to say “there was an emergency.”

The caller then told her that her card had been used to open multiple bank accounts and had been used for drug trafficking and money laundering.

She was told to withdraw all her money immediately.

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