INDU meeting 43 · 2026-06-08 — Committee Evidence — LegisWatch

Summary

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry and Technology (INDU) met on June 8, 2026, to study fraud and online scams. Witnesses included David Shipley from Beauceron Security, Jennifer Quaid from the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange, Jon Camfield and Rachel Curran from Meta Platforms Inc., Nicholas Giurietto from the Australian Banking Association Inc., and David Pegley from the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange Ltd.

David Shipley argued that online platforms, particularly Meta, profit from scam ads and should be held liable for them. He recommended a 24-hour cooling-off period for suspicious transactions, shared responsibility among platforms, banks, and customers, and better resourcing of the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. He urged the committee to investigate whether Meta knowingly profited from fraud, citing a Reuters report that Meta expected $16 billion globally from scam ads.

Jennifer Quaid emphasized the need for a whole-of-society approach to fraud, treating it as part of a broader cybercrime and money-laundering ecosystem. She called for legislative frameworks to enable timely information sharing across sectors, noting that current silos and outdated regulations hinder collaboration. She stressed that prevention must be the primary objective, with real-time transaction intervention and network-level disruption.

Jon Camfield stated that Meta takes fraud seriously, enforcing against over 10 million scam-linked accounts and removing 159 million scam ads globally in 2025. He advocated for a whole-of-ecosystem approach, strong information-sharing frameworks with safe harbour protections, and outcomes-focused regulation. He disagreed with Shipley’s characterization of Meta’s revenue from scams, saying the 10% figure was a misrepresentation and that actual numbers were lower and declining.

Rachel Curran defended Meta’s tax compliance in Canada and its efforts to reduce scams, noting a 50% reduction in scam ad reports. She disagreed with Shipley’s suggestion that Meta’s motivation was tied to news publisher compensation, and she confirmed that Meta cannot share Canadian news content due to the Online News Act, even for fraud prevention articles.

Nicholas Giurietto described Australia’s scam prevention framework, which requires banks, telcos, and digital platforms to take equivalent but sector-specific actions to prevent, detect, and respond to scams. He stressed the importance of cross-industry data sharing and noted that placing the burden solely on banks is ineffective, as scams begin upstream. He said the framework is still being implemented but has already encouraged collaboration.

David Pegley explained that the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange facilitates intelligence sharing across eight industries, including banking, telcos, and digital platforms. He noted challenges in building trust among competing sectors and identifying relevant data attributes for each. He highlighted the importance of real-time sharing to stop funds from flowing offshore and to support law enforcement after the fact.

During questioning, members pressed Meta on its responsibility for scams, with some accusing the company of profiting from fraud and blocking useful news content. Meta representatives defended their efforts, citing $30 billion spent on safety and security over a decade. Shipley and Quaid reiterated the need for platform accountability and prevention-focused measures. The Australian witnesses emphasized that a coordinated, multi-sector approach is essential, and that Canada should avoid a bank-only liability model. No procedural debate, motions, or votes were recorded in the transcript.

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Witnesses · 6

David Shipley

Chief Executive Officer, Beauceron Security

Opening remarks

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to testify before this committee again. At Beauceron Security, we have helped educate more than one million individuals on how to spot and stop cyber-attacks and online scams. I've spent more than a decade studying how cybercriminals exploit human trust online. Their business is booming. Erin West, founder of the international anti-fraud effort Operation Shamrock, has called it the “scamdemic”. Fraud rose once again in Canada in 2025, hitting more than $700 million in reported losses, but with losses likely ranging between $7 billion and $14 billion, as only 5% to 10% of fraud is reported. Fraud losses are up in Canada 326% since 2020. We're losing, and we're losing more than just money. It's shattering Canadian families, and it's leaving seniors destitute. Let me be blunt about where this fight is being lost. If we think of the scam economy as a funnel and think of where each group sits, the online platforms that profit by selling scammers advertising sit near the top. One company's products stand above all others. The Independent recently quoted Lloyds in the U.K. as stating that two-thirds of their customer fraud cases start…

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Jennifer Quaid

Executive Director, Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange

Opening remarks

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to all members here for the opportunity to appear today on behalf of the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange and the Canadian anti-scam coalition. The Canadian anti-scam coalition is Canada's largest coordinated effort to fight scams, bringing together leaders in financial services, telecommunications and technology, alongside government, regulators and law enforcement. We do it because fraud is no longer a nuisance. It is the defining financial crime of our era. Each year, it affects millions of Canadians, costs billions of dollars and erodes public trust in our systems. This is not a trend. It is a persistent and growing threat. I want to talk about three ways Canada can begin to turn this tide. First, we need a genuine whole-of-society approach. Financial institutions, telecommunications companies, digital platforms, regulators, law enforcement and government must actively collaborate with shared objectives, coordinated policies and a focus on upstream prevention. Scammers do not respect organizational boundaries. Their operations move through telecom networks, banking systems and social media platforms and into the phones of Canadians every…

Nicholas Giurietto

Head of Future Policy, Australian Banking Association Inc.

Opening remarks

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good evening, and good morning from Australia. My name is Nicholas Giurietto, and I head financial crime policy at the Australian Banking Association. That's the main industry representative body for the banking sector in Australia. My area of responsibility includes AML-CTF, cybersecurity and scams, and I've been heavily involved in the development and now implementation of the Australian government's scam prevention framework. This has involved collaboration with government policy bodies, various regulators and colleagues from other industry sectors. The unifying purpose of all of these stakeholders is a shared desire to keep Australians as safe as possible from the scourge of scams conducted by global organized crime gangs. Our approach is to work together to stop scams before they happen, not simply requiring one part of the scam chain to take responsibility for protecting or refunding customers. It's about acknowledging the complexity of our digital world by working together to stop scams at the source. The Australia scam prevention framework has attracted a lot of attention around the world as the first example of an anti-scams regulatory regime…

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