Who better to warn of scams than one of the greatest con artists to ever live? That’s the mantra Toronto-based shop Zulu Alpha Kilo adopted when early lockdowns last year brought a nasty phenomenon to Canadian seniors stuck at home: a major uptick in targeted phone scams that were collectively netting millions of dollars.
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To counter this trend, Zulu Alpha Kilo developed the “Catch the Scam” campaign for its client, HomeEquity Bank, a financial services company dedicated to Canadians aged 55 and older. Using four of the most common scams pulled on seniors—from fake lottery claims to grifters posing as tax officers—the agency tapped con artist-turned-security expert Frank Abagnale, whose life story was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in “Catch Me If You Can,” to school at-risk Canadians in a series of videos teaching them how to identify and avoid such scams.
With a modest media spend of just $25,000, the campaign of three-minute lessons received a heap of national attention soon after it launched, its profile boosted by posts on Abagnale’s social media accounts and interviews he gave on major Canadian networks including Global News and BNN Bloomberg. And with more than 35 million impressions and 1.1 million combined views on HomeEquity Bank’s platforms, “Catch the Scam” is the most successful online campaign in company history.
