Holiday Season is Scam Season in Canada Too
- RBC poll shows 86% of Canadians feel scam-savvy, yet 25% have already fallen victim to fraud
- Canadians fear AI-powered scams, deepfakes, and holiday fraud, yet many still take significant online shopping risks
- RBC urges verification, strong security, ongoing education, and advanced fraud technologies to protect Canadian consumers and financial institutions
Over the past few years, we've warned about the upsurge in scam during the holiday season for the US. But, what about our friendly neighbors to the North?
According to a post at Cision Newswire, Royal Bank of Canada’s 2025 Fraud Awareness Poll reveals a striking gap between confidence and reality: 86% of Canadians say they can spot a scam, yet one in four admit they have already fallen victim to one. Released on November 25, 2025, the RBC-commissioned survey of 1,511 adults warns that overconfidence may leave holiday shoppers especially vulnerable as they chase deals and race to complete their gift lists.
The article goes on to note that, while 59% of Canadians report taking added steps to protect themselves from scams:
- Nearly a quarter (24%) acknowledge they take more risks than they should when shopping online
- 21% say outright they are willing to take risks to save money
- 18% admit they have mistakenly landed on fake retail websites or dupes of legitimate retailers in the past year
- Three-quarters (73%) believe falling for a scam would spoil their holiday season, underscoring how high the emotional stakes feel at this time of year
Rising Threats, Powered by AI
Most respondents expect this holiday season to be worse for scams than previous years (79%), and 76% believe scams will be harder to detect. Artificial intelligence is a major driver of that anxiety: 85% say they are worried about AI-powered scams that look legitimate, and 61% are specifically concerned about deepfakes and voice cloning used to impersonate real people. Nearly one in three Canadians (29%) report seeing at least one social media post in the past year where a celebrity, influencer, or public figure promoted a product or contest that later turned out to be a deepfake.
Silence, Stigma, and Missed Lessons
Canadians do look out for one another:
- 53% say they have stopped friends or family from falling victim to a scam
- At the same time, almost a third (32%) would only report a scam if they actually lost money
- 10% admit to keeping a scam experience secret from people in their lives
RBC interprets this combination of shame and under-reporting as a barrier to broader fraud awareness and calls for more open conversations about scams, especially during the holidays.
RBC’s Holiday Fraud-Safety Playbook
In response to these findings, RBC is urging Canadians to slow down and “check it twice” before clicking links, sharing information, or acting on urgent messages. The bank highlights four key practices:
- Verify who you are dealing with (particularly when messages appear to come from family, friends, or your bank)
- Stay vigilant when shopping online by validating retailers and reviews
- Use strong passwords, account alerts, and multi-factor authentication
- Engage in ongoing education through resources such as RBC’s My Money Matters hub and the Canadian Anti-Scam Coalition’s StandAgainstScams.ca
RBC emphasizes that the bank will never ask clients to initiate transactions on its behalf, share one-time codes, download remote access tools, or disclose PINs or passwords—clear red flags consumers can use to spot impostors this holiday season. Additionally, paper cheques (checks) are still a common payment that Canadians need to be vigilant. The Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) provides tips to keep yourself protected.
For financial institutions -- both Canada-only and FIs that operated in Canada -- it's important to ensure that the same technologies leveraged in the US be utilized for Canadian cheques as well. Image forensic AI for on-us check fraud and deposit fraud is not just for US checks; they can be utilized for Canadian cheques as well.
Fraudsters operate globally. Fortunately, FIs have the technologies available to protect themselves and their customers.