The City of Laval was one of two communities in Quebec that saw the sharpest increases in fraud last year, according to data compiled by the Quebec Association of Directors of Police (ADPQ) last year.
The findings, released by the ADPQ at Sûreté du Québec headquarters in Montreal, found that nearly 37,000 Quebecers were victims of fraud in 2023, representing an increase of 15 per cent over two years.
Laval and Quebec’s Mauricie region saw the biggest increases in fraud at 20 per cent, while Montreal, Montérégie, and the Capitale-Nationale regions also saw steep rises in numbers of fraud victims.
The most frequent frauds in Quebec, according to the ADPQ, are those involving the fraudulent use of gift and credit cards, computers and identity theft.
These include frauds involving false representatives, grandparent-type frauds, and romance frauds.
The dozens of frauds reported each year are only “the tip of the iceberg,” according to an ADPQ spokesperson, partly because many victims prefer never file complaints with the police either because of shame or the amounts stolen aren’t substantial.
