CHARLOTTETOWN — The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is warning Canadians about a new scam called Delayed Disconnect Fraud and is urging them to be vigilant.

According to federal police, fraudsters communicate with victims by phone and pose as representatives of credit card companies, financial institutions or fraud departments.

They then encourage victims to contact their bank to fix a problem. They ask them to dial the phone number on the back of their credit card.

Victims then drop the phone, believing they have lost communication.

However, the scammers pose as representatives of the financial institution that the victims intended to call. You can even play a sound to really make victims believe they just made a new call.

The crooks then collect crucial personal information from the victims in order to compromise their bank account.

According to the RCMP, victims believe they hung up but are unaware that the call was not dropped and the scammer is still listening.

Police say this scam takes advantage of the fact that in Canada there can be a delay between when you hang up and when the call actually ends.

The RCMP reminds Canadians not to provide personally identifiable information, such as the name of a financial institution, with incoming calls.

She also asks to hang up and wait at least a minute before making a new call to make sure the first connection was actually dropped. And whenever possible, the next call is encouraged to be made on another line, such as a cell phone.

The RCMP urges Canadians who believe they have been the victim of fraud to contact their local police department.