Rogers customers described to CBC how scammers used fake promotions and return labels to leave them paying for iPads they no longer have.
Rogers customers who thought they were accepting a legitimate promotion for a free iPad say they were instead drawn into two-year financing plans and then tricked into mailing the devices to scammers, leaving them responsible for bills worth about $2,350.
The scheme described by victims to CBC News turns a familiar service-provider pitch into a costly return scam: callers posing as Rogers representatives guide customers through an order, then another caller says there has been a mistake and sends a shipping label that does not return the device to Rogers.
Brianna MacKay of Oakville, Ont., said a caller contacted her in March offering a cheaper phone plan and a free iPad. She said she had accepted a similar promotion before and was reassured because the caller did not ask for personal information. “I’ve gotten a free iPad from them in the past, so I agreed to it,” she told CBC.
After the iPad arrived, MacKay said another person claiming to be from Rogers’ activation department told her the device had been sent in error and needed to be returned. She mailed it using a label she was sent, only to learn the package had gone to a home in Brampton, Ont., not to Rogers. She was left with what she said was a $120 monthly bill for an iPad and data plan.
CBC also reported the case of Jeong Park, a 74-year-old Toronto woman and former Rogers customer, who said she was called in December by someone offering a cheaper home phone and internet plan. Park said she sent a photo of her driver’s licence and was unknowingly signed up for an iPad financing plan. The return label she received directed the device to a home in Edmonton.
Rogers told CBC it warns customers in shipping emails and box inserts not to return devices to any address other than a Rogers address, and that it will never call asking a customer to return a device. The company said it uses several channels to educate customers about return scams.
After CBC contacted Rogers, the company removed a $20 monthly service fee from MacKay’s account and offered the customers a one-time $50 goodwill credit. The customers remained responsible for the financed iPads, CBC reported.
Both MacKay and Park filed reports with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and local police, and filed complaints with the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services.
Fraud officials said the tactic is unusual because victims are not immediately asked for money. Toronto police financial crimes Det. David Coffey told CBC: “This scam doesn’t trick people into buying something fake. It tricks them into giving away something real.”
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said it has tracked this type of fraud since 2022. More broadly, Canadians reported losing more than $19.5 million to service-type scams last year, and about $8.9 million in the first three months of this year, though the centre estimates only a small fraction of fraud is reported.
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