As the holiday shopping season approaches, one expert says there are some new scam trends emerging that consumers need to watch out for.

Larry Zelvin, head of the financial crimes unit at Bank of Montreal, says artificial intelligence is making fraud harder to detect.

Some emerging scam threats include AI-generated fake retailer websites and QR code scams that are embedded with malicious links.

Other scams include fake influencer accounts and counterfeit products on the TikTok Shop, as well as digital pickpocketing, where criminals use contactless payment devices to skim data from phones.

Zelvin says there are steps people can take to protect their personal information and finances.

This includes measures like not clicking on links in emails or text messages and instead going directly to a retailer’s website, and using credit cards since they have stronger protections against fraud than other payment methods.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2025.

Daniel Johnson, The Canadian Press

An emergency meeting of the “Insaf Di Awaaz” organisation was held at Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj Sahib in Phagwara, under the chairmanship of the Assembly constituency president Dr Paramjit Singh Kotli. State committee member and Punjab General Secretary, Jodh Singh Thandi, was present as a special invitee.

During the meeting, members discussed intensifying their struggle for the recovery of the investments of citizens trapped in the Pearl Group and various other chit fund companies. Addressing the media after the meeting, Dr Kotli announced that following a call given by the national president of the organisation, Mahinder Pal Singh Dangarh, Pearl scam victims from across the country will stage a massive protest in front of the Ministry of Finance in New Delhi on November 26.

He stated that all members present in the meeting unanimously agreed to participate in the protest. Dr Kotli further recalled that Dharamvira Gandhi, Member of Parliament from Patiala, had raised the issue of the Pearl Group scam in Parliament last year, questioning Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman regarding the return of the huge amounts owed to investors.

Kotli alleged, “However, the Finance Minister misled the House by claiming that the money is available, but no claimants have come forward, despite investor data being fully available online.”

He added that due to persistent pressure from investors over the years, the Central Government has only recently initiated partial refunds to small investors, but the pace of reimbursements remains extremely slow.

“Large investors have not received a single rupee so far, leading to growing anger and frustration. The government’s reluctance clearly shows that it is not serious about returning the hard-earned money of the people,” he said.

Dr Kotli appealed to all participating investors to carry photocopies of their Pearl policy bonds during the demonstration in Delhi.

Prominent members present at the meeting included Bimla Devi Chak Hakim, Dr. Kulwinder Jassal Bhakhriana, Satya Khati, Kulveer Singh Khaliyaan, Manjeet Kaur Manak, Harbhajan Lal Mukandpur, Ashok Kumar Rawalpindi, Jaswinder Kaur Virk, Manjeet Kaur Virk, Sukhdev Kumari, and Praseen Kaur Chak Prema.

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If a parent passes on money from their super and their child is not classified as a dependent under the tax rules, they could pay up to 32 per cent on the balance of the super fund.

For example, if they inherit $500,000 in superannuation money, you could be paying tax of up to $160,000.

In most cases, one spouse is going to nominate everything to the other spouse in the event of their passing. At that point, there is a “big tax saving that people forget about,” Vogiatzis said.

“If that person passes away with their super, their children will pay tax on it,” he continued. “[But] in most cases, they’re over 65 which means they can just withdraw everything.”

They can give their children a cash gift which won’t be taxed. “It can an save you hundreds of thousands of dollars… A lot of people don’t know about it.”

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It can be a tricky thing to time, however. While super is in the pension phase there’s no tax payable on the earning of the fund (below $1.9 million) but if you cash it out, then the earnings on that money are now in a taxable environment.

“You don’t want to cash out too early, but that is a strategy,” Vogiatzis said.

The Productivity Commission previously estimated that $3.5 trillion would be passed on from Aussies aged 60 and over by 2050. More recent JBWere figures put the figure at $5.4 trillion over the next 20 years. A good chuck on that will come from superannuation balances, but exactly how it’s passed on will determine how much the ATO ultimately rakes back in.

Financial advisors are licking their lips as more Australians face these difficult decisions, with a recent report by the Super Members Council finding the “general complexity” of the system is leading to “decision paralysis” among retirees.

It comes as the number of retirees in the country is set to double, jumping to about 2.8 million people in the next decade. About 10 years ago, 150,000 people would retire each year. But soon this number will jump to 300,000 per year, a trend described as the “silver tsunami”.

Meanwhile Finder research found 41 per cent of Aussies – equivalent to 8.8 million people – expected to receive an inheritance.

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One in 10 said they were depending on an inheritance to achieve major financial goals like buying a house or retiring, while one in five said it will significantly improve their financial standing but they weren’t solely dependent on it.

Unlike other countries like the UK and US, Australia has no federal inheritance tax.

There have been growing calls to introduce such a regime, with the Australia Institute in August calling for an inheritance tax with the group’s senior economist telling Yahoo Finance it could help bring in as much as $10 billion a year for government services.

However a poll of more than 4,400 Yahoo Finance readers found nearly three quarters of respondents were totally against bringing back any form of inheritance tax.

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