Guelph police are warning people to be careful when checking their emails and text messages after two back-to-back fraud cases.

Police said that a Guelph woman in her 20s lost approximately $50,000 between her primary and investment bank accounts on Sunday, while the following day, a woman in her 70s reported that she lost over $5,000 after texting someone she thought was her son.

Scott Tracey, a spokesperson for the Guelph Police Service, said that the woman in her 20s “had received an e-mail from her bank indicating that she needed to log into her account and read a secure message.”

“She clicked on the link … provided all of her login information, and then unfortunately a short time later began receiving messages from her bank indicating that her accounts had been emptied.”

Police said the woman in her 70s received texts saying her son had been in an accident and needed money to pay for the damage, and she sent two deposits of $3,000 and $2,000 before realizing the texts weren’t from her son.

March is Fraud Prevention Month

Tracey said that people need to “have their guard up” when checking their online messages.

“It’s best to try and confirm [by] reaching out to that person directly just to make sure that that is in fact them that’s contacting you.”

For bank messages that seem suspect, Tracey suggests contacting your bank branch independently before taking action.

“We certainly encourage people to be proactive beforehand and try to prevent themselves from becoming victims,” Tracey said, “rather than hoping that we can recover the funds afterwards.”

If you believe you may be a victim of fraud, Tracey recommends you contact the police or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.