Free scam escape room comes to Square One in Mississauga
Published May 10, 2024 at 2:11 pm
Those who love escape rooms may want to try a free experience in Mississauga’s Square One this weekend.
The Be Scam Smart Escape Room comes from the Canada Revenue Agency and is a way to learn about scams targeting residents.
“It’s an escape room experience to help Canadians understand scams that anyone is susceptible to,” Daria Askerko, CRA communications manager told insauga.com. It is now set up in Square One Shopping Centre until Sunday (May 12).
People continue to lose thousands of dollars every year to scams. There were 63,434 scams reported in 2023 with losses totalling $569 million, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
Fraudsters often use the CRA’s name as a way to scare people into providing personal information or making payments.
“A lot of people are still, unfortunately, susceptible to scams,” Askerko said.
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People are welcome to enter CRA’s escape room, a green and yellow cube-like structure, for free, Askerko said.
Once inside, they will find three different rooms — a kitchen, a living room and a public transit room.
“In each room, you move through displays of examples of scams that are quite common that use the Government of Canada’s name in order to scam people,” said Askerko.
People try to solve puzzles in a certain amount of time to proceed to the next room. It takes about 10 minutes to complete.
Although escape rooms are popular among younger people, Askerko said all kinds of people have been through the Be Scam Smart Escape Room.
There is also an option to do the quiz online or outside the room.
The escape room has also made stops in Montreal, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and will head to Burnaby, B.C. next.
It is open and free during Square One Shopping Centre hours.
For more information on CRA scams, see the website here.
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