Valerie Favreau was “crushed” when she learned that two Oromocto minor hockey teams had been scammed by a new con that has made its way to New Brunswick.
“I was floored,” she said. ” I just couldn’t believe it.”
Favreau, the chair of the Oromocto Minor Hockey Association, said the association will often receive tournament sign-up information, which she will then forward to Oromocto teams.
But this new scam comes in the form of an email mimicking these sign-up calls, often with convincing graphics and names of real people and real tournaments.
Favreau said two under-13 teams signed up for a tournament that was supposed to happen in Stanley, each team losing around $750 in fake registration fees. She said the teams only found out they had been scammed when the schedule came out for the tournament and they weren’t on it.
Valerie Favreau, the chair of the Oromocto Minor Hockey Association, said two U13 teams signed up for a tournament that was supposed to happen in Stanley. Each team lost around $750 in fake registration fees. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
As a mom to five hockey players, Favreau said the scam makes her angry.
“Parents and kids have to fundraise for all that money, and it’s a lot of money,” she said.
“It’s really heartbreaking for the kids to also be excited about going to a tournament and then have it cancelled because it’s not real.
“Like, scams are wrong. Doing it against kids, I think it’s really low.”
Scammers send out fake sign-ups for real minor hockey league tournaments and pocket the registration fees that can be upwards of a thousand dollars
The scam is not only targeting New Brunswick teams. A Nova Scotia team also fell victim to the scam, and Hockey Alberta issued a warning as well.
Nobody with the New Brunswick RCMP was available for an interview, but Cpl. Luc Picard said in an email the RCMP were aware of reports involving tournament registration scams targeting minor hockey teams and associations.
“We can confirm that the RCMP did [receive] complaints from the public about this,” Picard wrote. “As these investigations remain active, we are unable to provide further details at this time.”
The statement said the RCMP encourages organizations and individuals to exercise caution before sending money or sharing sensitive information.
Anyone who thinks they have fallen victim to a scam should report it to local police, their financial institution and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Picard said.
Jeff Horncastle, the client and communications outreach officer with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, said this type of scam is referred to as spear phishing — a targeted form of fraud where criminals impersonate a trusted individual to deceive people into sending money or information.
“In other words, they really do their research on their target before, and we have seen them target minor hockey associations, churches, businesses,” he said.
“In the first nine months of 2026, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre received reports of approximately $87 million in losses linked to spear phishing, and that was an increase from $68 million in all of 2025. So it is a type of fraud that has been increasing quite rapidly.”
The sophistication of spear phishing is also increasing.
Three years ago, Horncastle said there may have been signs that an attempt was fraudulent just based on the email’s appearance. But now, he said, fraudsters have tools to help them write their email so language barriers aren’t a factor and they have tools to help them research their target.
Horncastle said scammers can often create an email domain with one letter changed — like swapping a lowercase L for an uppercase I — or they can spoof an address so the real one doesn’t show unless a person hovers over it.
“Technology and sophistication play a huge role in this type of fraud.”
Nic Jansen, the executive director of Hockey New Brunswick, said his organization first heard about the scam about a month ago when it started appearing in Nova Scotia and Alberta, so he sent a memo to members.
Jansen said tournaments can cost upwards of $1,000.
Nic Jansen, executive director of Hockey New Brunswick, said the demand for tournaments can make it difficult for people to decipher between what is real and what is fake. (Submitted by Nic Jansen)
And he said a lot of New Brunswick tournaments sell out quickly. He hears concerns every season about the difficulty of getting into tournaments.
“There’s tournaments that, like once posted, sell out almost instantly,” Jansen said.
“There’s certainly a willingness and a desire for teams to attend tournaments. … It’s often the highlight of players’ minor hockey season to go to these tournaments.
“I would say that the demand and the interest to attend tournaments makes it challenging to decipher between what’s actually legitimate and what can be a scam.”
Jansen said when a team gets an email, they should look at the sanctioned tournament list on Hockey New Brunswick’s website and contact the host association directly if they have concerns about an email being real.
Favreau said she now gets tournament scam emails daily. But ever since two Oromocto teams were scammed, she now double and triple checks the sanctioned list from Hockey New Brunswick when she gets an email.
“I’m really doubting about everything right now,” she said. “I’m really looking for signs. I’m really looking to make sure everything is legit.”
