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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, N ov em be r 28 ,2 01 9 | 12 oakville.ca W at er S t 11B 11A 10 Tr af al g ar R d D u n n S t G eo rg e St Th o m as S t N av y St LakeshoreLakeshore Rd E Robinson StRobinson St 21 15 16 7 5 Randall St 14 Church StChurch St Downtown Oakville Parking Kerr Village Parking 12 17 Westside Dr Herald Ave Washington Ave Florence Dr Deane Ave NN orm nnddyy Pl K er r St K er r St R ey n o ld s St R ey n o ld s St 8 Church StChurch St A lla n StRandall St Going out for a late night dinner or party? This holiday season, you can park between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. at no charge in all town parking lots, with the exception of the 300 Church Street Parkade. Available November 29 to January 6. Need more time? Use the HonkMobile app to pay for any extra time you need past 9 a.m. For more information Visit the parking page on oakville.ca Overnight holiday parking made easy Downtown Oakville and Kerr Village An Oakville nurse is warning the public about a new scam, which succeeded in draining around $10,000 from her credit card. Sheila O'Reilly said her ordeal began Saturday, Nov. 9 when she realized she had no service on her cellphone. She contacted her service pro- vider to find out what was going on and was told she had no ser- vice because she had cancelled her account earlier that day. "I told them I didn't. I'm on a business account and also I have two other people on this account so I wouldn't have cancelled it," said O'Reilly. "That's when I was transferred to the fraud department." The service provider eventual- ly determined that someone had called, impersonated O'Reilly and answered enough security ques- tions to be given access to the ac- count. The fraudster then cancelled the account and ported the phone number to another carrier. Now in possession of O'Reilly's phone number and account infor- mation, the scammer succeeded in quickly making numerous pur- chases with O'Reilly's credit card. "I phoned Visa right away and the agent at Visa said there had been charges on my account, $4,000 to Ticketmaster, money to Lucky Mobile, to Uber Eats and he listed a whole bunch of other ones and I just stopped writing them down," said O'Reilly. "It was close to $10,000." The OPP has described this type of fraud as a "SIM Swap Scam." They issued a warning early in November, noting the new fraud was beginning to make the rounds. "Fraudsters are using SIM swapping and phone number porting to gain access to your email, social media and financial accounts," said the OPP in a press release. "From there, they gain direct access to your personal informa- tion, calendar, contacts and mon- ey. Fraudsters may empty your bank accounts, apply for credit in your good name, or impersonate you to defraud your entire con- tact list. In the meantime, you lose access to your mobile ser- vice, are typically locked out of all your accounts, and are left scram- bling." The OPP said the fraudster will impersonate the victim to gain access to their mobile ac- count and may claim that their phone has been lost or stolen. The victim's phone number will be linked to a new SIM and device that the fraudster con- trols. The fraudster then down- loads a series of the most popular and most attractive apps. They will select the "Forgot Password" button on all apps. If the account is associated to the victim's phone number or email address, the fraudster will receive a verification code. They will then use this code to confirm ownership of the ac- count, create their own password and take over the accounts. The OPP are advising resi- dents to: .Keep personal information personal by keeping information like your date of birth off social media .Never answer phishing emails or text messages looking for you to confirm your passwordfor you to confirm your passwordf or update your account informa- tion .Use an offline password man- ager .Contact your phone provider and ask about additional security measures that may be available .Contact your service provider immediately if you lose your mo- bile device. In addition to her credit card being defrauded O'Reilly says her email, her Google account, Face- book account and Messenger ac- count were all shut down as a re- sult of this scam. She has reported the fraud to Halton police. While O'Reilly is uncertain ex- actly how scammers got her in- formation in the first place she isformation in the first place she isf hoping people will learn from her experience and do what they can to protect themselves. She noted her credit card com- pany has cancelled the $10,000 in charges but says the ordeal has still had an impact. "It's really a huge pain and it does make you paranoid," she said. "It's really annoying and it gets under your skin because you just don't know who to trust out there." Anyone in Halton who be- lieves they may be a victim of fraud are asked to contact thefraud are asked to contact thef Halton police Fraud Unit at 905- 465-8741. NEWS NURSE FALLS VICTIM TO NEW SIM SWAP SCAM FRAUDSTER TRICKED CELLPHONE PROVIDER INTO GIVING ACCESS TO VICTIM'S ACCOUNT DAVID LEA dlea@metroland.com Oakville nurse warning others after falling victim to new SIM Swap Scam. Torstar file photo