Albertans have lost at least $156M to fraud this decade. Many others don't report the crime

Albertans have reported losing more than $156 million to fraudsters since the start of this decade, with tens of millions more being taken each year. But there hasn’t been a coinciding rise in victims — in part, experts say, because people are reluctant to come forward.

In 2023, roughly 2,900 Albertans lost more than $62.5 million to various fraud schemes — up more than fivefold from the $11.3 million taken from about 2,600 people in 2020, data shows.

More than half the reported losses in the province last year were from investment scams, particularly cryptocurrency frauds. Spear-phishing — when scammers pretend to be