Canadian securities regulators announce launch of online investment fraud awareness campaign

CSA

Calgary - To cap off Investor Education Month, Canadian securities regulators announced today the launch of a new online fraud awareness campaign to start in November. The online campaign is designed to target those Canadians who are enticed by slick online fraudulent investment opportunities.

"Our enforcement teams across the country have firsthand knowledge of how unscrupulous promoters are turning to the internet to market their fraudulent investment opportunities and the threat these online investment scams pose to Canadian investors," said Bill Rice, Chair of the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and Chair and CEO of the Alberta Securities Commission. "Canadian securities regulators felt it was important to tackle these tactics head on and educate potential investors in the same spaces where fraudsters solicit their victims."

The online public education initiative will include online advertisements and social media promotions that point to a video and website of a fictitious company, BlueHedge Investments, to illustrate how scam artists use these tools to lure unsuspecting investors in cyberspace. Soon after people land on the fictitious company's website, they are redirected to an educational website to help them recognize, avoid and report investment scams they might find online or via social media.

"The red flags we highlight in the campaign are based on techniques that we have observed tech-savvy fraudsters commonly use when soliciting victims online," said Rice. "Our objective is to reach these potential investors and arm them with information to avoid investment fraud so they don't become a victim of these cyber scams."

CSA members involved in the initiative include the Alberta Securities Commission, the Autorité des marchés financiers of Québec, the British Columbia Securities Commission, the Financial Services Regulation Division of Newfoundland and Labrador, the New Brunswick Securities Commission, the Northwest Territories Securities Office, the Nova Scotia Securities Commission, the Nunavut Securities Office, the Prince Edward Island Securities Office, the Saskatchewan Financial Services Commission, and the Yukon Securities Registry. The campaign will run mid-November 2011 to mid-February 2012.

The CSA, the council of securities regulators of Canada's provinces and territories, coordinates and harmonizes regulation for the Canadian capital markets.

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For more information:

CSA member name

Point of contact

Phone number

Autorité des marchés financiers

Sylvain Théberge

514-940-2176

Alberta Securities Commission

Mark Dickey

403-297-4481

British Columbia Securities Commission

Richard Gilhooney

604-899-6577

Financial Services Regulation Div. Newfoundland and Labrador

Doug Connolly

709-729-2594

Manitoba Securities Commission

Ainsley Cunningham

204-945-4733

New Brunswick Securities Commission

Wendy Connors-Beckett

506-643-7745

Northwest Territories Securities Office

Donn MacDougall

867-920-8984

Nova Scotia Securities Commission

Natalie MacLellan

902-424-8586

Nunavut Securities Office

Louis Arki

867-975-6587

Ontario Securities Commission

Carolyn Shaw-Rimmington

416-593-2361

PEI Securities Office, Office of the Attorney General

Janice Callbeck

902-368-6288

Saskatchewan Financial Services Commission

Jennifer Anderson

306-798-4160

Yukon Securities Registry

Fred Pretorius

867-667-5225