The Headline Numbers
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), run jointly by the RCMP, the Competition Bureau and the Ontario Provincial Police, is the national place Canadians report fraud.2 Reported losses have risen every year since 2021, while the number of reports in its open dataset has fallen, from 107,796 in 2021 to 51,728 in 2024.4 Losses since 2022 passed $2.4 billion by the end of 2025, and the first three months of 2026 added more than $188 million.2,3
| Period | Reported loss ($ millions) |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 388.7 |
| 2022 | 533.6 |
| 2023 | 578.1 |
| 2024 | 645.3 |
The open dataset figure for 2024 ($645.3 million) differs slightly from the $643.7 million in the CAFC’s 2024 annual report, because each is a snapshot taken on a different date and reports keep being processed after the year ends.6,4
Is There a Count of Rental Scams?
Not in the official public data. The CAFC’s open dataset sorts every report into one of about forty fraud categories, and none of them is rental or housing.4 The published category definitions cover identity theft and fraud, merchandise, service, phishing and others; a fake listing that takes a deposit has to be filed under one of those.5 The 2021, 2022 and 2024 annual reports do not break out rental fraud either.6
That means any national “rental scam” figure you read is either a CAFC spokesperson’s count quoted in the press or a private company’s survey. Treat both as a lower bound with an unknown method.
Identity Fraud Leads the Reports
Identity fraud is the closest official measure to what a landlord faces when an applicant uses someone else’s name. The CAFC defines it as a criminal using previously stolen personal information, usually to commit another crime.5 It was the most reported fraud type in 2025, and the CAFC’s 2024 report found it hit all age groups, with people aged 30 to 39 victimized most.1,6
| Period | Victim reports |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 31,579 |
| 2022 | 19,671 |
| 2023 | 11,202 |
| 2024 | 9,616 |
Read the drop carefully. The CAFC says the fall in total reports since 2020 reflects the pandemic spike in 2020 and 2021, its own capacity to process reports, and more complex cases; in 2024 it processed only 52% of the reports it received, against over 80% in 2020 and 2021.6 Fewer processed reports is not the same as less fraud.
Dollar losses are also missing from this category by design. The CAFC records identity fraud, personal information and phishing reports with a loss of zero, because the loss is usually absorbed by someone else, such as a financial institution.5 For a landlord, the cost of a rental obtained with a stolen identity never shows up in these totals.
What Credit Bureaus Report About Application Fraud
The bureaus see fraud at the point of application, which is closer to tenant screening, but they publish selectively and by industry. Use their figures as direction, not as a rental rate.
- Equifax Canada reported that 48.3% of fraudulent applications it flagged in Q2 2024 were identity fraud, up from 42.9% a year earlier, and that synthetic identity fraud rose from 2.8% to 8% over the same period. The release focused on auto lending and gave no method.7
- TransUnion Canada reported that 4.6% of account creation attempts from Canada in 2025 were suspected fraudulent, based on its clients’ transaction data.9
- In TransUnion’s late-2025 survey of 999 Canadians, 13% said they had lost money to digital fraud in the past year, with a median loss of $1,301; identity theft was a cause for 18% of those who lost money.9
Equifax Canada describes synthetic identity fraud as blending real and fictitious identity details to create a new identity.8 That matters for screening because a synthetic applicant can arrive with a credit file that looks real.
What the Data Can and Can’t Tell You
| Question | What the public data supports |
|---|---|
| Is fraud in Canada growing? | Reported losses grew every year from 2021 to 2025.4,2 |
| How many rental scams happen? | Unknown. No official rental category exists in the CAFC data.4 |
| How often do applicants falsify documents? | Unknown in Canada. No public body tracks forged pay stubs or bank statements on rental applications. |
| Is identity fraud common? | It is the most reported fraud type, though reported counts depend on processing capacity.1,6 |
| How much goes unreported? | The CAFC estimates only 5% to 10% of fraud is reported.2 |
What This Means for Screening
For Ontario REALTORs® and landlords, the practical reading is simple. There is no reliable base rate for application fraud, so don’t screen to a statistic; screen so that each fact in the file comes from its source. The fraud the data does show clearly, identity fraud, is the one a document check alone misses, because a stolen identity comes with real details.
- Match the applicant to their ID and the ID to the credit file; see Tenant Identity Fraud.
- Get income and employment from the payroll system or bank, not from a PDF the applicant forwards; see Fake Pay Stubs.
- Order the credit report yourself rather than accepting the applicant’s copy; see Fake Credit Reports.
- If you are defrauded, report it. Every report adds to the only national dataset there is.2
PropTx Verify checks applicants against payroll, bank and identity sources, runs fraud detection on any document an applicant uploads instead, and treats uploads as weaker evidence than a connected source. The wider pattern is covered in Rental Application Fraud.
Questions
How Much Money Did Canadians Lose to Fraud in 2025?
More than $704 million was reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre in 2025, across over 112,000 reports. The CAFC estimates only 5% to 10% of fraud is reported.1,2
How Common Are Rental Scams in Canada?
No official figure exists. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre’s public dataset has no rental or housing category, so rental scams are counted within other fraud types.4
What Is the Most Reported Fraud in Canada?
Identity fraud. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre received 8,403 identity fraud reports in 2025, more than any other type.1
Why Are Fraud Reports Falling While Losses Rise?
Partly because of processing. The CAFC processed only 52% of the reports it received in 2024, against over 80% in 2020 and 2021, and it prioritizes high-value cases.6
Sources
- Fraud Prevention Month 2026
Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Top 10 frauds based on the frequency of reporting in 2025 (table 1). Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Fraud Prevention Month to bring hidden crime into the spotlight
Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, News release, March 6, 2026, paragraphs 2 and Quick facts. Accessed October 28, 2026.
- Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre supported Operation FRONTIER+III: an international action to disrupt fraud
Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, News release, June 4, 2026, Quick facts. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre Fraud Reporting System Dataset
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Open Government Portal, CSV covering 2021-01-01 to 2025-09-30, extracted 2025-10-01; dollar loss summed and identity fraud victim reports counted by year of Date Received. Accessed October 28, 2026.
- Description and Associated Definitions of Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre Statistics
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Open Government Portal, Fraud categories; Additional questions: why do so many reports have a dollar loss of $0?. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- CAFC Annual Statistics Report 2024
Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Executive summary and key trends (pp. 5 to 6); 2020-2024 comparison, Canada (p. 21). Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Equifax Canada reports rise in automotive fraud
Equifax Canada Newsroom, Release dated September 24, 2024. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Equifax Canada launches Synthetic Identity Score to help protect businesses from the hidden threat of synthetic identity fraud
Equifax Canada Newsroom, Release dated April 27, 2026, definition of synthetic identity fraud. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Digital fraud attempts from Canada surpass global average as Canadians who said they lost money to digital fraud in the last year report losing a median of CAD $1,301
TransUnion Canada Newsroom, Release dated May 13, 2026; H1 2026 Update to the Top Fraud Trends Report; consumer survey fielded November 20 to December 5, 2025 (Canada, n=999). Accessed October 22, 2026.
