new scam: canada benefits counsel

The website exists - a kind of empty shell site depicting a nonsensical non-profit organization where you can buy memberships for $1,500 to get business leads etc.

I am not sure what they are up to - I am sure it is no good. Maybe they issue false invoices to companies for memberships hoping they will inadvertently get paid? Maybe they hope to be confused with legitimate organizations with similar names?
(Like the Business Council of Canada).

What was your interaction with them? What is the senior angle?

I just got the same call. I asked if I can read about these benefits on their website. The page canadabenefitscounsel.com does not exist. "The agent" told me that these benefits will not show up on the page because of competitors and he will have his manager call me. He knew only my last name and initial, asked for the first name. I refused to give any personal information. I am pretty sure, it is a scam. (Accent was Indian or Pakistani, but the call showed 416 area code, however the ring was long distance).

My mom also got a similar call. I was worried initially but these guys were trying to sell final expense insurance and she got a small policy from them as well. I am sure these are marketing calls from some insurance brokers.

Yah. Just got this scammer call.

I have received numerous weekly calls from them and they are all 416 #'s but you can't call them back.
They have called as early as 5:30 A.M. and I just tell them to remove my name from their Scam List .
Very frustrating as this has been going on for at least 8 months. I just hang up as soon as I know who it is.

I just got a call from this "organization" this morning. So clearly they continue to prey on unsuspecting seniors for their scamming. The woman who called was from India or Bangladesh originally per her accent. She said if I agreed I'd get a call from her "supervisor" about how to guarantee my income, health support, etc. I countered all that nonsense, telling her I had a guaranteed pension, health insurance, etc. When we ended the call, I tried calling back the local no. shown on my caller i.d. - "not in service" was the automated response from the phone co. So they are 'spoofing' nos. I also reported it to the CRTC Telemarketing folks, who took all the info even tho the person I spoke to said it was likely a scam rather than an actual telemarketing call, but she'd pass it on for investigstion. She said it should be reported to the RCMP or another police fraud unit. Problem with that is when you tell them you didn't fall for it, they say then a fraud wasn't actually committed and so they cannot do anything with your report! One further thing about the call I received -- the caller knew my given name. I have 3 given names and the one I use with friends and family isn't the first one - yet the caller knew it and called me by that name. So BEWARE !

Well, 15 minutes ago I received another call from this scam group. Again it was a woman with a distinct South Asian accent , who followed the very same script as before and again knew the name only my close and old friends know! The sole difference was that the Toronto phone number they were 'spoofing' was a real one. When I tried calling it I got a senior who was quite upset at what I told him about how his number had been usurped and misused. He thanked me for letting him know about it and said that he would contact his service provider, Bell, and report it. Good luck with that!! These bandits prey on naive seniors and should be shut down. I have no doubt that if the tech folks at Bell, Rogers, Telus, etc. were allowed to put their minds to it, they would come up with a way to prevent these calls!