Beware!! Scammers are posing as Planhub to defraud Canadians (July, 2020)

Over the past few days, we have been made aware that a bunch of scammers have been posing as Planhub to contact Canadians over phone and email. They offer too-good-to-be-true deals on the latest smartphones (e.g. Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, iPhone 11Pro Max etc). They then attempt to get personal and credit card information out of you. If you think you’ve received an email from us, please check whether it comes from a “@planhub.ca” domain. If not, DO NOT respond to the email. We will never call you unsolicited. If you receive a call from PlanHub offering you a deal on phone plans or devices, hang up immediately and DO NOT give out any personal information to the caller. 

How the scam works:

1. A person will email you from an email id that looks at first glance to be from PlanHub, offering you a free high-end phone as a “deal”. 
2. The scammers will even use the PlanHub logo to attempt to appear genuine. 
3. They will usually list their office address as 343 Bloor Street, Toronto.
4. The scammers in question will ask for your personal and credit card information to process “the taxes” or ‘fees” for the free phone and ask for your driver’s license number to do a “credit check. 
5. They will even ship phones to you, but it is usually the wrong phone. 
6. You will receive a call explaining that they’ve shipped the wrong phone and that this one is not free.
7. They then ask you to send the phone back to a specified address, promising to send the right phone. 
8. Usually, they’ve used the personal and credit card information you’ve provided earlier to place an order for new phones from your account with your telecom service provider.
9. Once you send the phone back + have paid the “taxes” on the new phone, the scam is complete.
10. You lose the money you paid as “taxes” on the “free phone” plus are on the hook with your telecom company for “ordering a new phone”.
11. There is a chance that you lose access to your telecom account as well as your phone number.
12. You may have revealed your driver’s license number, credit card number and personal information including your address etc, that puts you at increased risk for identity theft.

How to tell the difference between PlanHub and the scammers:

1. Planhub is CASL laws (Canadian Anti-Spam laws) compliant and will never contact you unsolicited. 
2. We will never contact you for services you did not expressly sign up for.
3. We will always contact you from an email id that looks like – XYZ @planhub.ca. Planhub will always appear after the @, never before. 
4. We do not process payments on our site and we will always refer you to a phone or internet deal on offer from a recognised service provider. 
5. You won’t be asked for personal information or credit card details over the phone or email.
6. Planhub does not have offices anywhere in Toronto or at any Montreal addresses these scammers may provide to you by email. 

What to do if you think you’ve been scammed:

1. Stop all communication with the scammer
2. Contact your telecom company and your bank to put them on alert for unauthorised transactions. Change your password and security questions if possible.
3. Make a list of all the information you have shared with the scammers and collect all documentary evidence from emails etc. 
4. If you’ve been contacted by phone, make a note of the date, time and duration of the call as well as the number of the caller. 
5. Report all of this to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. They maintain quite a comprehensive list of scams currently running to inform Canadians.
6. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre works with the RCMP to detect and apprehend scammers.
7. Report the scam to your local police station and make a note of your complaint file number. If you get any further calls or emails from the scammers, report this additional info using the same file number. Or if you notice any suspicious activity on your telecom or bank account, report that too – using the same file number. 
8. Reporting suspicious activity on your bank or credit card statements to the police is essential if you want to prevent it from negatively appearing on your credit report and potentially damaging your credit rating. 
9. Bring the scam to our attention by emailing us at [email protected] 

PlanHub is a safe and secure site. We only help you choose the best mobile and internet deals for your needs. It is completely safe to browse on our site and click any links to plans that may interest you. Links we provide to plans are always provided to us by the service provider themselves and always lead to a safe destination. So go ahead, browse for the best phone plans and internet plans in the market with peace of mind. Just be careful of those who pretend to be us. Thank you for your vigilance.