Fraud alert
Many scams and fraudulent activities attempt to imitate government services in order to gain access to your personal and financial information. FINTRAC and FINTRAC personnel have occasionally been misrepresented in scams and fraud attempts.
Be aware!
Please be advised that FINTRAC will not contact members of the general public in any way to obtain financial or other personal information. FINTRAC only contacts businesses it regulates (reporting entities).
Members of the general public should be aware that any contact made by a person claiming to be a representative of FINTRAC, whether that contact is in writing, by email, on social media or by phone, should be considered suspicious, and is very likely an attempt at defrauding you of funds or obtaining your personal information.
Protect yourself
FINTRAC cannot and does not freeze, hold, or block the movement of your funds. Furthermore, FINTRAC will never ask for a fee to be paid to release funds of any kind.
Even if communication appears to originate from FINTRAC or uses what appears to be official letterhead, any communication asking the general public to send money to FINTRAC or to contact FINTRAC regarding a payment should be considered fraudulent.
If you suspect that you may be the victim of a scam or fraud, or have been tricked into giving personal or financial information, please report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and contact your local police service.
Businesses subject to the Act
FINTRAC may contact businesses (reporting entities) subject to the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act for purposes such as:
- completing a registration, verifications or validations relating to a money services business
- starting compliance assessments, examinations, or related activities
- requesting and providing information, invoicing, and collecting payments in relation to the administration of the assessment of expenses funding model
- responding to a request for a review of a file
Businesses that want to verify that they have legitimately been contacted by FINTRAC can consult Contact FINTRAC to verify email addresses.
Note: As part of its assessment of expenses funding model, FINTRAC sends invoices to prescribed businesses (reporting entities) using the following email address: expenses_assessment-evaluation_depenses@fintrac-canafe.gc.ca. It is important to verify the email address as similar email addresses could be used in scams or fraudulent activities.
For more information on the assessment of expenses funding model, consult: Charging reporting entities for FINTRAC's compliance program.
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