Voter survey scam targets Ontario residents

A voter survey scam is circulating in Ontario ahead of upcoming elections.

There are two upcoming elections in Ontario.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned as Liberal leader, possibly pushing the date of the next federal election.

An early Ontario election is expected to be called next week sending voters to the polls on Feb. 27.

With elections comes voter surveys and a new text message appears to be from a real polling service.

The text message, sent to people in the GTA, purports to be from “Voter Research Services” and asks “If a Federal Election occurred who would you vote for?”

It then asks the recipient to choose “LIB”, “NDP”, “CON”, “GRN” or “other.”

A search shows there is no official “Voter Research Services” organization and the Canadian Research Insights Council, an advocate for research and analytics, warns against bogus text surveys.

The Canadian Research Insights Council has received complaints from a company called ERG National Research that has been sending out a similar text message. The message asks people which federal party you would vote for in the next federal election.

“Those who respond are then asked to provide their postal code,” the Council said on its website.

The messages they are sending are not in compliance with CRIC standards, the organization said. There is no contact information listed on the text message and they don’t say the purpose of the survey.

“CRIC members are required to specify the purpose of their research and to register their research,” the organization said.

Equifax, a credit bureau, also warns about fake voter surveys or polls circulating at election time. The scams are typically a ruse to get personal information, Equifax said on its website.

It is not immediately clear what the fraudster will do with the postal code. A similar scam was circulating in British Columbia last year and residents speculated that a postal code could be used for “nefarious purposes.”

Any attempt to get personal information could be a phishing scam, which could lead to identity fraud or the installation of ransomware, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Learn more on the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre here.

Lead photo: Michael Burrows