When Brianna MacKay got a phone call in March from someone claiming to be a Rogers employee offering a cheaper phone plan with a free iPad, she didn’t think twice — she had taken advantage of a similar promotion before.
“I’ve gotten a free iPad from them in the past, so I agreed to it,” she said. “They didn’t ask for any of my information, it seemed legit.”
The caller walked her through how to sign up for the promotion on the Rogers app, she says. A couple of days later, the iPad arrived in the mail followed by a phone call from another person — this time claiming to be from the Rogers activation department.
MacKay, who lives in Oakville, Ont., says that person told her there had been a mistake and that she would have to pay for a data plan on the iPad.
“I got upset and I said, ‘I clarified multiple times on the phone that there wasn’t going to be any charges with this,'” she said. “They were so apologetic.”
MacKay says she was told the error could be resolved by simply returning the iPad. They emailed her a return shipping label, and she sent it in the mail.
The problem: the iPad did not go back to Rogers, but to a home in Brampton, Ont. MacKay then realized she had never spoken with a Rogers employee and had instead been scammed, leaving her with a $120 monthly bill for an iPad she no longer has and a data plan to go with it.
It turned out she had not signed up for a cheaper phone plan, but for an actual iPad financing agreement and data plan with Rogers.
She, and another victim of the same fraud CBC News spoke with, said they cannot afford the monthly payments they are now stuck with. They explained their situation to Rogers and asked the company to cancel the plan, which it refused to do.
It was only after CBC contacted Rogers that the company removed the $20 monthly service fee for the data plan and offered a one-time $50 “goodwill gesture.” But the customers are still on the hook for the iPads, which cost $2,350.
“It’s really stressful. Times are tough as it is,” MacKay said. “I can’t budget in this payment, so I actually don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Rogers says when a customer orders a new device, the company tells them by email and through a note inside the shipping box not to return the device to any other address other than a Rogers one. It also says it informs customers that Rogers will never call asking to return a device.
“We understand how difficult it is for customers who fall victim to fraud and we actively share information on how to stay protected against fraudulent activity, including return scams targeting consumers globally and across industries,” Rogers spokesperson Christina Salituro said.
“We use a variety of ways to educate our customers, including shipping notification emails, hand-outs in device shipment boxes and on our website.”
The Canadian Telecommunications Association, which represents telecom companies such as Rogers, says the issue is being seen across a range of industries.
“Telecommunications providers take these threats seriously and continue to invest in protections and education for consumers, along with collaboration with law enforcement and the Canadian Anti‑Fraud Centre,” spokesperson Nick Kyonka said.
Jeong Park just so happened to be in the market for a cheaper internet plan when someone claiming to be from Rogers called offering a good deal on home phone and internet. That led to Park being victimized in the same scam as MacKay.
At the time of the call in December, the 74-year-old was not an active Rogers customer, though she had been in the past. The fraudster instructed her to send a photo of her driver’s license and, unbeknownst to Park, signed her up for the two-year iPad financing program.
The return shipping label the scammer provided to Park was for a home in Edmonton.
“My feelings are very frustrated and I am ashamed, too,” Park said.
Her son-in-law, Jody Brisson, has been helping Park try and get a refund from Rogers and says more safeguards should be in place when it comes to signing customers up.
“It feels very simple to be able to go online with a copy of a driver’s license and sign up for a large financed amount, especially when [Rogers] knows these things happen,” Brisson said.
In Park’s case, she is not being charged the $20 monthly data-plan fee. When asked by CBC if Rogers would remove $20 from her monthly bill in another way, the company said both she and MacKay would receive a one-time $50 credit as a goodwill gesture, which Brisson calls disappointing.
“A $50 goodwill credit on a $2,000 financed iPad doesn’t even cover the interest and is insulting,” Brisson said.
Both MacKay and Park filed reports with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) and their local police services, and filed complaints with the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS), an independent industry-funded organization created to resolve consumer complaints with Canada’s telecommunications companies.
Toronto police financial crimes Det. David Coffey says these types of scams are not new, but since communications companies have started holding victims financially responsible, police are seeing more reports.
“This scam doesn’t trick people into buying something fake. It tricks them into giving away something real,” he said.
The CAFC says it has been tracking this type of scam since 2022. Outreach officer Jeff Horncastle says it is unique because the fraudsters aren’t asking for money and there is not the same sense of urgency that is typical of many other scams.
“It is pretty sophisticated. And those iPads add up pretty quickly, especially if they’re doing it on such a large scale like a lot of fraud is,” Horncastle said.
He says the fraudsters often use vacant homes or sorting facilities as delivery addresses.
York Regional Police Const. Kevin Nebrija says they also pick random addresses.
“They then watch for the iPad to be dropped off at which point they grab it or get someone else to pick it up from the porch,” he said.
Horncastle says this particular type of scam is one of the main variations that fall under the service scam category, in which fraudsters pose as legitimate service providers.
Last year, Canadians lost more than $19.5 million to service-type scams across 3,393 reports made to the CAFC. In the first three months of this year, approximately $8.9 million has been reportedly lost over 659 reports, according to the CAFC.
The CAFC says all fraud is grossly unreported, estimating that only five to 15 per cent of cases get reported to it.
