If you live in Québec, you know July 1 isn’t just Canada Day – it’s Moving Day, when an estimated quarter of all leases across the province turn over at once. And even outside Québec, July and August are the busiest moving months of the year across Canada. Unfortunately, that makes this the peak season for a particular set of scams – ones that can empty your bank account or quietly set up identity theft that doesn’t surface for months.
What makes moving season especially risky is the combination of urgency, stress, and paperwork. You’re signing documents, sharing personal information with new companies, setting up utilities, forwarding mail, and often making decisions under time pressure. Scammers know exactly when and where to apply pressure, and they’ve built variations of the same scams for every step of the process.
The good news is that these scams almost all share the same warning signs – and the habits that protect you from one will protect you from most of the others. Let’s walk through what to watch for before, during, and after your move.
The Rental Listing That Doesn’t Exist
If you’re searching for a new place, the scam to watch for is the fake rental listing. The Montreal police (SPVM) and RCMP have both issued public warnings about fraudulent apartment ads, and with Canada’s tight rental market, these scams have become more sophisticated and more common. A 2023 Better Business Bureau report ranked home and rental scams as the third-riskiest category of fraud in Canada, with a median loss of around $2,000.
The typical fake listing uses real photos – stolen from a legitimate property that’s listed elsewhere, often at a lower price than similar units in the area. The “landlord” claims to be out of the country or otherwise unavailable to show the unit in person and asks for a deposit by e-transfer to “hold” the apartment. Newer variations are bolder: scammers have staged in-person showings with stolen keys to Airbnb units or have rented the same apartment to multiple victims on the same day.
Never send a SIN, banking information, or any kind of payment – not a deposit, not a holding fee – before viewing the unit in person and confirming the landlord’s identity through a source you’ve independently verified. A reverse image search on the listing photos and a cross-check of ownership through your municipal property assessment roll are both worth a few minutes of your time. If the price is noticeably below comparable listings nearby, treat that as a warning rather than good luck.
The Change-of-Address Request You Didn’t Make
This is the scam most likely to follow you after the move is over. Someone impersonates you and files a change-of-address request with Canada Post, redirecting your mail to an address they control. From there, they have weeks of access to bank statements, credit card offers, tax documents, and anything else that lands in your mailbox – more than enough to open credit accounts in your name.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has flagged mail-forwarding fraud as a leading vector for identity theft. The warning sign is usually a confirmation letter from Canada Post acknowledging an address change you never requested. If you see one, act immediately – the fraudsters have almost certainly already gathered enough personal information about you to file the request, which means other parts of your identity may already be compromised.
If you receive a Canada Post confirmation of an address change you didn’t request, act immediately:
- Contact Canada Post immediately to cancel it and, if you have credit monitoring, watch for alerts of any new accounts opened in your name
- When you do move, update your address directly with your bank, credit card companies, the CRA, and your provincial health and driver’s licence authorities – don’t rely solely on mail forwarding
- Shred any mail containing personal or financial information, especially in the weeks before and after a move when you’re discarding old documents
- Use Canada Post’s Hold Mail service if you’ll be away from home during the transition
The “Welcome to the Neighbourhood” Utility Scam
New address, new utility accounts, new opportunity for scammers. Within days of moving – sometimes within hours – fraudsters often call or text new residents claiming to be from the local electricity, gas, water, or internet provider. They’ll say there’s a problem with your account setup, a missed payment from the previous occupant, or an urgent need to verify your identity to avoid service disconnection. Some will offer a “new customer discount” that requires banking information or an immediate payment by gift card or e-transfer.
These scams work because the timing feels plausible. You’ve just set up new services, you’re expecting calls from companies you’ve never dealt with before, and you may not yet know the actual name of your local provider. That uncertainty is exactly what the scammer is counting on.
No legitimate utility will demand immediate payment by gift card, cryptocurrency, or e-transfer – and real disconnection notices arrive in writing, well in advance, not as surprise same-day calls. And when you set up new services, save the official customer service number in your contacts. It’s a small step that gives you a trusted line to call back when something doesn’t feel right.
A Steady Hand During a Chaotic Month
Moving is one of the most information-heavy transitions in your life. Your address, your banking details, your identification, your emergency contacts – all of it gets handed to new companies, updated on new accounts, and sometimes left on paperwork in bins at the curb. Scammers know this. But so do you – and the same instincts that protect you the rest of the year are what protect you now: pause before paying, verify through a channel you trust, and slow down when someone is pressuring you to act fast.
Sigma provides support built in for exactly this kind of transition. Our identity restoration specialists are available if you suspect your information has been compromised during your move – whether it’s an unauthorized change-of-address request or a suspicious new account in your name. And our credit monitoring service works quietly in the background to catch utility scams at their source: if a fraudster opens a utility account in your name, it gets reported to the credit bureau, which is exactly the kind of change that triggers an alert to you – giving you the chance to act before the damage spreads.
Remember to stay vigilant, stay informed, and stay safe.
