Fake Rogers, Fido and Freedom calls offering free phones or chasing a balance
It is a scam. No phone company rings you out of the blue to give you a free phone or cut your bill in half.
A caller says they are from your phone company with a free upgrade or a big discount. A real device gets ordered on your account and delivered to your door, then a second call talks you into sending it back. A Freedom Mobile version skips the gift and simply chases a balance you do not owe. These are descriptions of calls reported in Durham, not word-for-word scripts, because callers vary the wording every time.
How it works
Three versions reported in Durham
Whitby, September 2026, with similar reports from Oshawa and Pickering: the caller offers a bill discount and a free new phone and asks you to place the order yourself through Rogers so it looks legitimate. Once the phone is delivered, a second call explains there has been a mix-up and the phone needs to be sent to another address under a phone-swap arrangement.
Pickering, July 2026, with Rogers showing on caller ID: the caller offers a free loyalty iPad or iPhone. After delivery they call back to say it was "accidentally ordered under a regular plan instead of the loyalty program" and offer to collect it, reassign it at a store, and bring it back.
Whitby, June 2026, with at least five similar reports in the same thread: a limited-time "win back promotion" for an iPhone 17 Pro Max at $30 a month for two years, ordered through the Fido app even though the app showed $75, with the discount to be applied later. An "activation" caller then asks for the device IMEI, claims it does not match, and says it must be shipped back.
Pickering, October 2026: repeated calls and texts claiming to be Freedom Mobile and saying a balance is owing, more than ten a day. No free device, just pressure to pay through whatever link or number the caller gives.
How the opening varies
Sometimes the number is spoofed so your call display shows the real company. Sometimes it is an ordinary unknown number. Sometimes the caller only says they are from "your phone provider" and lets you fill in the name. A call is not safe because the number looks familiar, and it is not safe because the number looks unfamiliar either. Call display proves nothing.
Whatever the opening, the device is real, the courier is real, and the charges are real. That is what makes this one convincing. The return is where the loss happens: the device goes to an address the scammer controls, a shipping label they email you, or someone who comes to collect it. In late September 2026 Sudbury police said they had received about 20 reports, and one Sudbury woman was left owing nearly $17,000 for six devices.
These calls are reaching Durham numbers repeatedly. We have taken them ourselves, and residents in Whitby, Pickering and Oshawa reported the same calls in local community groups between June and October 2026. Police warnings so far have come from the OPP and neighbouring services rather than Durham Regional Police.
One more thing worth knowing if someone turns up at your door to collect a device. Ontario’s door-to-door contract protections do not apply to federally regulated businesses, and telecom companies are federally regulated. Durham Regional Police note this on their fraud page. The rules most people assume cover them at the door will not help here.
How the real Rogers contacts you
Rogers says its stores, and Fido stores, are blocked from making outgoing calls, so anyone claiming to call from your local store should be reported as fraud. Rogers also says it will never ask for your personal and account details by text.
Rogers does not publish a promise that it never calls customers with offers. So the safe habit is the check, not the caller: hang up, open the Rogers or Fido app or sign in on the website yourself, and see whether the offer exists on your account. If it is not there, it was never real.
Source: Rogers: spot and report social engineering
Does Rogers call you about promotions?
Rogers and Fido stores are blocked from making outgoing calls, so a call "from your local store" is fake by definition, and Rogers never asks for account details by text. Rogers does not publish a rule about promotional calls, so treat every unexpected offer the same way: hang up and check your account yourself in the app or on the website. A real promotion will be there. A scam will not.
What to do
- Hang up, whatever the caller ID says. A spoofed number can show the real company, and an unfamiliar number makes the call no more real.
- Check any offer by logging in to your account or calling the number printed on your bill. Never call a number the caller gives you.
- Never give account details, a password or a verification code to someone who called you.
- Never use a return label that arrives after an unexpected call, and never hand a device to someone who comes to collect it. Contact your provider directly.
- Check your account for orders and charges you did not make.
- Report it to the OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501.
- If you tapped the link, entered details or paid: here is exactly what to do next, step by step.
- If this one also reached you by text, forward that text to 7726 (SPAM). How to do that on iPhone and Android.
- Got a different message? Run it through our one-minute checker.
Sources
If this has already happened to you, our scam recovery visit can lock down your accounts and devices. And if you are just not sure whether something is a scam, asking us is always free.