Oct 19, 2026
Your phone lights up with a number from British Columbia. A quick search confirms 250-762-3300 is the real non-emergency line for the Kelowna RCMP. The caller says police have arrested someone holding your personal information.
Then comes the pitch: click a link, verify your passwords or hand over your account details.
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It’s a scam, and because the number on your screen is genuine, it’s a convincing one. Police say these calls are targeting people nationwide. On the coast, North Vancouver RCMP are tracking a similar con built on fake court threats. Both tactics exploit the same natural instinct: doing whatever an authority figure tells you to do.
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What’s happening with the Kelowna RCMP number?
Who’s actually on the other end of these calls? Not the police. Kelowna RCMP issued a public warning on Oct. 16, 2026, after receiving numerous reports of fraudulent calls that appear to have come from the detachment’s non-emergency line, Kelowna Capital News reported.
In the report, Cpl. Allison Konsmo, media relations officer for the Kelowna RCMP, said the caller poses as an officer, claims a suspect in custody has the victim’s personal information, then asks for passwords and account details
It’s not the first time. The detachment warned about the same number being spoofed in September 2023 and again in April 2025. During the 2025 wave, scammers actually told skeptical targets to look up the number online, knowing the official search result would make their fake call seem real.
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Why can’t you trust caller ID anymore?
Because scammers can easily fake it. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Canada’s federal telecom regulator, describes caller ID spoofing as the practice of bad actors disguising their identity with false or altered numbers to gain credibility.
The CRTC mandates that carriers use STIR/SHAKEN, a framework designed to verify whether incoming internet-based caller IDs are authentic. But according to Rogers Communications, the system only verifies calls when both carriers support it and your device is compatible.
Law enforcement doesn’t sugarcoat what that means in practice. Caller ID “can be manipulated and should not be relied upon” as proof of identity, Konsmo said.
How does the North Vancouver ‘sheriff’ scam work?
Between Oct. 7 and Oct. 14, 2026, North Vancouver RCMP received three reports of a caller claiming to be from the “Vancouver Sheriff’s Office.” Scammers claim you missed a court date and threaten arrest and even jail time unless you pay up right away.
Investigators confirmed neither the name nor the number is connected to the justice system, and no losses had been reported.
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It’s a whole new script, based on a familiar tactic: a fake authority figure, an urgent threat and a ticking clock. In an official statement from the North Vancouver RCMP, Cst. Paul Reece said scammers use the fear of legal consequences to push people into acting before they verify anything.
What could one phone call cost you?
How much is at stake? Canadians lost more than $704 million to fraud in 2025, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), the national agency that collects fraud reports. Losses since 2022 have topped $2.4 billion — but only 5% to 10% of fraud cases are reported, so the real toll is likely far higher.
Identity fraud, the most-reported scam last year, runs on exactly what these callers want: social insurance numbers (SINs), passwords and banking details. Hand any of them over, and your bank account can get wiped in an instant or someone can start opening credit cards in your name.
What to do now
According to Kelowna RCMP, a real officer will not:
- Ask for passwords, banking information or other sensitive details by phone
- Send you links to verify or update your accounts
- Ask you to transfer money or make payments as part of an investigation
If you get one of these calls:
- Hang up, even if the number looks legitimate
- Call your local police yourself using a publicly listed number — dialling out means you reach the real detachment
- Never click links or share your SIN, passwords or banking details with an unsolicited caller
- If you’ve already shared information, call your bank right away and contact Equifax and TransUnion, Canada’s two credit bureaus, to ask about a fraud alert
- Report the call to local police and to the CAFC online or at 1-888-495-8501, even if you didn’t lose money
A real officer won’t mind if you hang up and call back. A scammer will.
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Amy Tokic is an SEO content editor for Money.ca. She holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of Windsor. Amy is an award-winning author and has been writing professionally for 15 years, publishing articles in the lifestyle and health sectors.
