St. Thomas, Ontario residents are being warned about scam text messages that look like they come from local police asking for feedback or survey answers. The St. Thomas Police Service issued the alert on June 15, 2026, after the fake messages started showing up on phones around town. The department says it never sends out unsolicited texts asking people to click links or share personal details, and anyone who gets one of these messages should delete it right away.
The St. Thomas Police Service posted the fraud warning on its June 15 media release, telling residents not to click any links, not to give out any personal or financial information, and to report the messages as spam. The texts are designed to look convincing, often using official-sounding language about police surveys or community feedback. But police say it is all a trick to steal information or install harmful software.
This kind of scam, called smishing, is a growing problem across Canada. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says Canadians lost more than $704 million to fraud in 2025, the highest yearly total ever recorded. That was up from $645 million the year before. Over 112,000 fraud reports came in last year, but experts believe only 5 to 10 percent of actual scams are reported, meaning the real numbers are much bigger.
The local warning came on a day when St. Thomas police were already dealing with other fraud reports. The same media release detailed a credit card fraud case and a bank impersonation scam that cost a resident nearly $3,000. The credit card fraud involved several unauthorized charges spotted by the victim, and the bank scam happened when someone called a resident pretending to be from their bank. These cases show how fraudsters are using multiple methods to target people in the community.
St. Thomas has seen serious fraud before. In October 2024, a resident lost about $15,000 in a Facebook Marketplace scam. Police encourage anyone making online purchases to use the safe exchange zone in the parking lot of their headquarters at 45 Caso Crossing, which provides a secure place to complete transactions in person.
If you get a suspicious text, police say do not engage. Delete the message and report it as spam through your phone’s built-in tools. Anyone who thinks they have been a victim of fraud should contact their local police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or use the online Fraud Reporting System.
