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The Nova Scotia Securities Commission investigates investment fraud that has a connection to Nova Scotia. Commission staff frequently receive fraud complaints, but not all fraud complaints reported to us fall under the Commission’s mandate.
This post is to assist you in knowing when to contact the Commission for a fraud complaint and where to take other fraud complaints that are not handled by the Commission.
As we stated in a previous blog post, the Commission has jurisdiction over any securities or derivatives transactions with a connection to Nova Scotia. This means any suspected fraud involving investments or persons offering investments located in Nova Scotia, or anyone that is outside the province that is targeting residents of Nova Scotia.
Securities and derivatives include shares in a corporation, units of a mutual fund or exchange traded fund, bonds, options, crypto assets and other forms of investment where you expect to earn a profit. More information is available about securities and derivatives in our other blog posts.
The first question to ask yourself before contacting us is “Does it involve securities or derivatives?” If the answer is no, you need to report the fraud to the police or the RCMP. This includes common frauds such as telemarketing fraud (such as impersonators of CRA or bank employees), grandparent scams, romance scams, contractor fraud, spear phishing scams, and texting scams (such as impersonators of Amazon deliveries or CRA requiring tax payments, etc). More information about reporting to law enforcement is set out below.
If your complaint does involve securities or derivatives, the next questions to ask yourself are
- Do I reside in Nova Scotia?
- Is the person offering the investment located in Nova Scotia?
- Is the entity whose securities or derivatives are involved located in Nova Scotia?
If the answer to all of these questions is no, you should contact the securities regulator in the province or territory where you reside and/or where the person or entity is located. Each province and territory has a securities commission that investigates investment fraud connected to that jurisdiction. So there may be situations where more than one securities commission can act and such commissions frequently cooperate so that the one that can be most effective in the situation will handle the matter.
If the answer to any of these three questions is yes, then the Commission has the authority to review your complaint. To begin this process, you can complete our online complaint form or send us an e-mail with as much detail as possible.
What can you expect when you contact the Commission to report investment fraud? After you fill out our online complaint form or send us an e-mail, we use the information you provide to determine what action, if any, we can take. We will also determine if your complaint should be re-directed to another commission or law enforcement agency. If we determine that a detailed review of your complaint should be conducted, you will be contacted (please provide us with your mailing address, email, and phone number) with contact details for the person assigned to your complaint. You may contact this person to discuss any further questions, comments or concerns, or to provide additional or new information relevant to your complaint. Please understand that the contact person is unable to discuss with you any details of an investigation prior to its conclusion. We take this precaution to ensure that we do not divulge any information that may jeopardize an investigation. Once an investigation is complete, and we have taken appropriate action, we can then inform you of the outcome.
What should you do if you need to report your complaint to law enforcement? If you are located in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) you can contact Halifax Regional Police by phone at 902-490-5020 to report fraud.
If you are located in Nova Scotia outside the HRM, you can file a fraud complaint with your local police service or local RCMP detachment. A list of Nova Scotia detachments and their contact information can be found here. Please note that the RCMP does not accept fraud complaints and reports by e-mail or on their social media channels.
When contacting the Commission or law enforcement for a fraud-related matter, please be ready to provide the following information:
- The type of fraud you are reporting
- The amount of money involved
- Any payment methods used (such as cash, money transfer, crypto payment, wire transfer or gift cards)
- If crypto assets were involved, any transaction IDs, wallet IDs and QR codes that were used
- How were you contacted (such as phone, email, text, social media or mail)
Halifax Regional Police and the RCMP have their own procedures for communicating with individuals who have reported fraud. Given the volume of reports they receive covering a wide range of issues, they may not be able to respond to you as quickly as Commission staff will.
All frauds can also be reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC). This is a federal agency that collects and publishes fraud data in Canada, and also provides information to help identify common frauds through warnings and alerts. The CAFC can also provide instruction and directions on what to do to deal with our credit if you are a victim of fraud. You can report fraud to the CAFC by visiting their website, and obtain information on what to do and steps to take if you are a victim of fraud.