Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown warns of phishing scam campaign imposters as election nears
Published October 17, 2022 at 10:35 am
With only one week left before the Brampton municipal election, Mayor Patrick Brown says there is a phishing scam and gift card scheme impersonating him.
In a statement released on Friday, Brown says scammers are using emails and text messages claiming to be from the mayor to try and gain personal and financial information from residents.
Brown says these messages are not from him, and that his campaign is not asking for any contributions made through gift cards.
“Donations to my campaign are made according to the rules,” Brown said in a statement to insauga.com. “We are unaware if the motivation for this identity theft, impersonation and fraud is regular criminal activity or the political dirty tricks of one of the other campaigns.”
Brown said the alleged scam has been reported to Peel Regional Police, but a police spokesperson says they have not found any such report.
“We have not seen any recent reports of such ‘phishing’ scams in recent weeks that I am aware of,” a police spokesperson told insauga.com. “I haven’t been able to locate a report in relation to the mayor’s statement.”
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The mayor urged anyone who may have been a victim of the scam to contact police.
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The allegations come as Brampton voters prepare to vote in the Oct. 24 municipal election which has seen mayoral hopeful Nikki Kaur take aim at Brown and what she’s called “dysfunctional chaos” and “corruption” at city hall, pointing to Brown cancelling investigations into the scrapped BramptonU project.
Brown defended his record last week during an interview on NEWSTALK 1010 last week.
“All I can say is that I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished over four years in the City of Brampton, and I think residents are happy, too,” Brown said, adding that polls show him winning “a huge majority around the council table.”
But a recent poll by Campaign Research for the Kaur campaign showed what it called “a statistical dead heat” between herself and Brown.
The poll was conducted last week over the phone with a sample of 258 respondents who are eligible Bramton voters. Campaign Research, which has close ties to members of Kaur’s campaign, says the poll was conducted with agents who speak both Punjabi and English.
Campaign Research says Brown and Kaur are tied with 32 per cent support, while another 25 per cent of respondents said they are undecided.
Brampton voters go to the polls to select the next term of council on Monday, Oct. 24.
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