Security alerts

Email money transfer services provided by Interac are increasingly becoming a preferred method of payment. With the increased volume in e-transfers, there has been a rise in digital fraud and money scams, with phishing attempts being the most common tactic.

Scammers may impersonate businesses, friends, or government officials to get you to share personal and financial information. Some typical ways scammers try to compromise email:

• Fake money transfers to trick you into revealing personal information, banking information or answers to security questions.
• Fraudulent online subscription emails to get you to click on phony links and update your payment details.
• Tax scams to bait you into providing your social insurance number by pretending to be from tax agencies. 

We have been informed that some of these emails or text messages may be using MNP's name and logo.

If you receive an email purporting to be from MNP or another business, we recommend you:

• Remain vigilant. Be wary of emails from senders you do not recognize, even if the message contains MNP logos or logos from other companies. Be aware and look at the sender email to ensure it is from mnp.ca. A common approach is where the attacker is registering a domain for example (nmp.ca or mnp1.ca) and using that to send the email. This will capture the majority of these scams.
• Exercise caution when clicking on any links. Do not respond or click on any links unless you are certain the email is from a sender you trust. If you receive a deposit or money request notification you were not expecting, contact the sender through a different channel to confirm it is real. If you are unsure whether a message was sent by an MNP team member, please call your local MNP office.
• Text messages. MNP will not reach out to you via text messages for financial transactions.
• Delete the email or text message immediately. If you receive a message that you suspect may be a phishing attempt, please delete it immediately.

If you think that you have been the victim of an e-transfer fraud, we recommend you take the following steps as precautionary measures:

• Change your passwords: This includes your password for your email inbox, online banking, and/or social media. This could include both individual and/or business emails, depending on the email that was used to open the suspicious link.
• Contact your financial institution: They can help identify if there has been an unauthorized access to your online banking and advise on securing your accounts.
• Consider filing a police report and reporting to Interac: Consider filing a police report and reporting the details of the fraudulent activity to Interac ([email protected]).
• Consider reporting to the CAFC: You can report e-transfer fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) to help them track and combat fraud.