Police say fraud not found after Cape Breton schools used in online soccer camp booking

Cape Breton Regional Police say they found no evidence of fraud after the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education issued what it called a "fraud alert" last month over a website that was taking bookings for after-hours summer soccer camps at schools in Sydney, N.S.

A parent associated with Harbourside Elementary contacted the force to report he had registered for a camp and was worried it might not be legitimate, police spokesperson Desiree Magnus said in an email this week.

"When the parent raised concerns about the school telling him it was not an official location, the company explained they are co-ordinating summer programs and attempting to establish locations in Nova Scotia," Magnus said.

She said the parent who complained received a full refund from the company.

Lewis MacDonald, the centre's director of operations, said in March that people should be wary of online bookings.

"There's all kinds of scam artists out there and people need to be really diligent in when they click on something that they can trust that site," he said.

"Anything that we put out has our email address [and] our contact information on it. If those things aren't on something, then people need to be careful."

MacDonald said the website was supposedly taking bookings at Harbourside and Shipyard elementary schools.

The centre for education encourages people and organizations to rent schools for activities after-hours and has an online option for that.

"We have a very strict rental policy and procedure for our schools. We try to get the message out widely of how to book and we welcome bookings and this certainly wasn't something that we had ever entertained or knew about," MacDonald said.

Anyone who is unsure of an online booking or activity offered in schools should contact the school in question directly, he said.

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