Stephanie McLean says a new national anti-fraud strategy and a planned Financial Crimes Agency are intended to better protect seniors
The story of Judy Skene, a Sault woman who lost nearly $1 million through an online scam, has reached the country’s highest level of government.
Stephanie McLean, Secretary of State (Seniors) for Canada, was made aware of Skene’s ordeal by Sault Ste. Marie – Algoma MP Terry Sheehan earlier this week.
“I had the opportunity to have a nice, fairly lengthy chat with her about her situation and what happened to her,” McLean said in a phone interview with SooToday.
Skene was deceived in July 2025 by a Facebook ad that featured an AI-generated deepfake video of Prime Minister Mark Carney urging people to invest $350 into a cryptocurrency investment scheme.
Scammers convinced Skene to invest increasingly larger amounts of money, promising her $40,000 a month in dividends if she kept buying into the bogus scheme.
“It’s just tragic,” McLean said.
“It happens frequently with seniors. They’re a target because they have large savings for their retirement. We hear stories like this too often and it’s the exact kind of thing that motivates me to take action.”
What can the federal government do to protect seniors from being victimized by these scams?
“It’s kind of like playing Whac-A-Mole with these things but that doesn’t stop me from trying,” McLean said.
McLean approached Wayne Long, Secretary of State (Canada Revenue Agency and Financial Institutions) regarding scams that victimize seniors.
“The result of that conversation is the national anti-fraud strategy that we announced and funded in the spring economic update,” McLean said, describing it as a coordinated multi-sector approach to combating fraud.
“It essentially helps us follow the money and disrupt organized international criminal networks, which are frequently behind these kinds of things. It’s quite sophisticated. From talking to Judy, it sounds like that’s exactly what happened to her.”
McLean said the national anti-fraud strategy will include the first federal law enforcement agency to exclusively focus on investigating serious financial crimes and recover illicit proceeds.
That entity will be known as the Financial Crimes Agency.
“We’ll have strength and regulations. This includes expanded enforcement powers. We’re putting a ban on crypto ATMs to crack down on illegal money service businesses. Frequently these predators will have seniors and other folks go to these crypto ATMs and that’s predominantly what those ATMs are used for,” McLean said.
She said Bitcoin ATMs, for example, will be banned.
The federal government will have regulations that address money laundering, terrorist financing and fraud.
McLean said there will also be a voluntary code of conduct for financial institutions to follow that will beef up prevention of scams that target seniors.
“All of this is going to be done in conjunction with community and industry partners, including senior servicing organizations,” McLean said.
She said such organizations include the Bay Street Active Living Centre 55+ in Sault Ste. Marie.
Those centres can provide education to seniors and make them aware of scams, McLean said.
Skene told SooToday she saw the AI-generated deepfake video of Prime Minister Mark Carney encouraging Canadians to invest in what turned out to be a scam on Facebook.
McLean was asked if she feels companies like Meta, which owns social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, should take responsibility to protect seniors and others from scams.
“It’s hard because the definition of what a fraud or a scam is can be hard to pin down,” McLean said.
“They’re so creative and come up with new methods that being able to define a fraud or a scam is next to impossible. But that being said, I would hope that those companies would be doing their part in that regard.”
McLean emphasized that seniors’ centres can play a role in educating, advising and cautioning people about online scams.
“In Judy’s situation she said she was told by people that she was being scammed, but at that point they already had their claws into her. So, our AI strategy has training that’s going to be free for all Canadians,” McLean said.
“This will help protect seniors from scams. It’ll teach them how AI scams work.”
McLean said the new Financial Crimes Agency will track scammers and hunt them down.
“It’s the first ever federal law enforcement agency that will exclusively be focusing on this because these are often international efforts and crime rings.”
The agency will take some pressure off police services across Canada, McLean said.
“It’s really hard for local police to be able to have this kind of expertise and to have the training and resources to go after an international organized crime ring. So that’s why we’ve created this new Financial Crimes Agency to fill that gap.”
The Financial Crimes Agency is not in operation yet.
“It’s in the works. We got it funded under the spring economic update,” McLean said.
She did not have a date for the agency’s official launch readily available.
The spring economic update was introduced in the House of Commons April 28.
The Financial Crimes Agency will receive $352 million over five years starting in 2026-27.
Pat Probert, a Toronto travel agent and longtime friend of Skene’s, learned of how the woman was victimized in March and has stepped up to help Skene with the money she needs to keep her condo, buy her groceries and pay her bills.
Probert has set up a GoFundMe page to buy Skene a good quality used car, which has raised more than $7,000 so far.
McLean said the federal government is working on restoring Skene’s eligibility for Old Age Security and the Canadian Dental Care Plan.
She lost access to those benefits and services when she was deceived by scammers into cashing in her Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF).
McLean said she isn’t certain if Skene will be able to get her money back.
“I’ve seen cases where law enforcement has been able to hold people accountable and charge them successfully in Canada and then they have access to things like the federal victims fund.”
“It’s still early days for Judy,” McLean said.
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