Edmonton Police are warning Alberta businesses about two fraud schemes that are hitting companies across Canada and the losses are significant.
The EPS Financial Crimes Section issued the warning June 30 after investigators identified multiple businesses across the country being targeted by the same operations. Combined losses from the impersonation scheme alone exceed $300,000. Officers were able to intercept $130,000 worth of goods before shipping, but the rest is gone. Once product leaves the country, recovery is essentially impossible.
"Once shipped, it is often impossible to recover the product or collect payment, resulting in significant losses for businesses that may have long term and lasting impacts on their financial viability," said Detective Jason Lapointe with the EPS Financial Crimes Section.
How the impersonation fraud works
This one started coming to EPS's attention in March 2026. Fraudsters pick a real, well-known business — Nestle, Parsons Corporation, Emco Corporation, and JBS Foods have all been impersonated — and create fake email addresses and website domains that closely resemble the legitimate company's. They use the names of real employees pulled from the company's own website or social media pages to make the communication look genuine.
They then place orders with other businesses. The orders look real. The emails look real. The names are real people. The business ships the product, often to a third-party warehouse or shipping facility. The invoice never gets paid. The product gets forwarded quickly overseas.
An Edmonton business recently lost $50,000 in product to this exact scheme. Investigators then identified the same operation hitting multiple companies across Canada.
"To date, the majority of these frauds result in product shipped to addresses in Quebec, where they are then placed into shipping containers bound for ports in Africa," Lapointe said.
How the chargeback fraud works
The second scheme is different but equally damaging. Fraudsters use stolen credit cards to make what appear to be legitimate purchases. The business ships the product or delivers the service. Then the actual cardholder who did not make the purchase reports the transactions as fraudulent. The financial institution reverses the charges and returns the money to the real cardholder.
The business is now out both the product and the payment, plus any fees the chargeback process generates. A local Edmonton business recently lost $25,000 this way.
Fraudsters running this scheme specifically target businesses that offer shipping or delivery, because it creates distance between them and the transaction. Like the impersonation fraud, product typically gets shipped to a third-party address or forwarding company, making the individuals behind it harder to trace.
Why both schemes are hard to detect before it is too late
Both frauds are designed to look completely normal up until the moment they are not. A new customer placing a large order is not inherently suspicious. An email from someone at Nestle sounds credible. A credit card payment clears. By the time a business realizes what happened, the product is gone and the chance of recovery is close to zero.
The time pressure built into both schemes is deliberate. Large or urgent orders from new contacts are a flag. Shipping addresses that differ from established locations are a flag. Billing and shipping information that do not match are a flag. None of those things look alarming in isolation — which is exactly why these schemes keep working.
These schemes are part of a broader pattern
What EPS is seeing in Edmonton is not unique to Alberta. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre tracks business impersonation and chargeback fraud as two of the fastest-growing categories of commercial fraud in Canada. Losses from business impersonation fraud reported to the CAFC in 2025 exceeded $50 million nationwide — and the actual figure is higher because most fraud incidents go unreported.
The Quebec-to-Africa pipeline Lapointe described is a documented route Canadian investigators have been tracking for years. Product moves to a consolidation address, typically in the Montreal area, then into shipping containers at the Port of Montreal bound for West African ports. The window for investigators to intercept is days, sometimes hours. The $130,000 EPS recovered in this investigation happened because businesses reported quickly. Most of the time that does not happen.
What businesses can do right now
EPS has published a list of specific steps businesses can take. These are worth reading carefully and sharing with anyone on your team who handles purchasing, invoicing, or shipping.
Independently verify new customers or changes in ordering patterns using known contact information — not the contact details the customer provides. Call the company directly using a number you look up yourself.
Carefully examine email domains for subtle differences. Extra characters, misspellings, or slightly altered company names are the most common tells.
Question large or urgent orders, particularly from new contacts, and verify them through known channels before shipping anything.
Confirm shipping addresses, especially if they differ from previously established locations.
Train staff to recognize social engineering and impersonation. The people placing these orders are skilled at sounding legitimate.
Be cautious of mismatched billing and shipping information.
Maintain detailed transaction and shipping records.
Report suspicious activity promptly to police and to your financial institution.
What to do if your business has been targeted
If you are an Edmonton business and believe you have been defrauded in either of these schemes, contact Edmonton Police at 780-423-4567 or dial #377 from a mobile device. You can also report in person at your nearest EPS station.
For businesses outside Edmonton, contact your local police agency. EPS specifically noted that early reporting helps investigators identify emerging fraud trends and potentially intercept shipments before they leave the country — as they did with $130,000 worth of goods in the current investigation.
Sources:
Edmonton Police Service, Financial Crimes Section, media release MRU #26R059, June 30, 2026 (edmontonpolice.ca)
Detective Jason Lapointe, EPS Financial Crimes Section, statements June 30, 2026
