While fraud can take many forms, it is generally known as misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact or willful or deliberate act or failure to act with the intention of obtaining an unauthorized benefit. Educating yourself about fraud is your best protection against it. If you would like to find out more about how we protect your privacy, please take a look at our Privacy Policy. Please note that we operate as John Hancock in the US and Manulife in other parts of the world.
If you received an email or text message from Manulife to verify your identity through a two-step authentication process – but you didn’t ask for one – that could mean:
Someone with a similar username as you made an error entering information, which triggered our reaching out to you in error (this is usually the case)
Someone may be trying to sign in to your account using your Manulife ID
The reason we have two-step authentication is to prevent someone other than yourself from signing in to your account. If you received a code, that means the security protection is working.
If you find yourself in this situation, you can do one of two things:
Sign in to your account and review your information to confirm all is well
Contact us – find our contact information (according to business segment) on our contact us page
If you believe you have received any suspected fraudulent correspondence purporting to be from Manulife/John Hancock not relating to any of the above, please provide a detailed summary of the matter below, and attach any relevant documentation received. This is a secure form; all information that you enter and submit is encrypted and kept confidential. For more information please refer to our Privacy Policy.
Please select the type of fraud you would like to report from the dropdown below:
I am looking to report:
Fraudulent Manulife Bank GIC brochure in circulation
Be on the lookout for fraudulent documents
A fraudulent product offer (an image can be seen below) referencing Manulife and Manulife Bank is currently in circulation. It promotes inaccurate GIC rates and portrays false information.
Please do not share any personal information, and contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and local police authorities if you’ve been offered this product.
No employee or authorized agent of Manulife or Manulife Bank, or any related entity is in any way associated with these materials or actions. We are actively monitoring and investigating this situation and taking steps to protect our clients and community.
Be on the lookout for fraudulent documents
A fraudulent product offer (an image can be seen below) referencing Manulife, Manulife Investment Management and The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company is being circulated. It promotes inaccurate GIC rates and portrays false information.
We’re advising clients not to share any personal information and to contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and local police authorities if they’ve been offered this product.
No employee or authorized agent of Manulife, Manulife Investment Management, the Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, or any related entity is in any way associated with these materials or actions. We are actively monitoring and investigating this situation and taking steps to protect our clients and community.
Fraudulent Text Messages
Fraudulent text messages claiming to be from Manulife/John Hancock have been received by some individuals.
These text messages may offer varying amounts of money and prompt recipients to click on a hyperlink to complete the transaction. Manulife/John Hancock does not send text messages offering money.
Please do not engage with these text messages or click on the links in them, this could put you and your device at risk.
Our customers' security is of paramount importance to Manulife/John Hancock, and we are working to combat fraud that targets our customers.
Important: Be on the lookout for fraudulent product documents
A fraudulent product document (an image can be seen below) referencing Manulife Investment Management and The Manufacturers Life Insurance company is being circulated. It promotes a fake Manulife fixed rate bond plan that portrays false information. No employee or authorized agent of Manulife Investment Management, the Manufacturers Life Insurance company or any related entity is in any way associated with this document.
The document features Manulife Investment Management’s logo and branding. Manulife Investment Management does not offer a Fixed Rate Manuplus Bond Plan and this information and document is fraudulent.
Be aware that you cannot rely on information in this fraudulent document. Some characteristics that may indicate an increased risk of fraud experience are
A great sense of urgency around receiving deposits, applications etc,
Guarantees or results that appear too good to be true ,
We are actively monitoring and investigating this situation and are taking steps to protect our clients and community.
If this product is being offered to you please immediately contact your local police authority and your provincial/territorial securities regulator. Do not share any personal information with the individuals in question For more information about fraud prevention, you can consult the following government agency website:
The article “15 Coronavirus Online Scams to Watch Out For” is a compilation of tips and recommendations from TheStreet.com on ways to stay safe online, as well as how to avoid cyber threats and scams during this pandemic.
The below fraud scams are provided for educational purposes and is not considered to be an all-inclusive list. If you receive suspicious correspondence purporting to be from Manulife/John Hancock please click on the Report suspected fraud tab to notify us immediately.
Employment offer scams
Manulife/John Hancock is aware that our brand may be used to carry out fraudulent job postings on partner job boards (i.e., Indeed, Glassdoor and LinkedIn). As a company, we take this very seriously. Prospective applicants should know that when applying to a role posted by Manulife/John Hancock, they will be redirected to Workday. Our Talent Acquisition team does not:
Post roles independent of Workday
Provide advance payments to applicants – do not cash or deposit a cheque bearing the Manulife/John Hancock brand, it is counterfeit
Communicate with applicants outside our internal email (@manulife.com or @jhancock.com domain – be aware of email address spoofing) or telephone systems
Use Google hangouts or other sites
If you unsure about the legitimacy of an employment opportunity with Manulife/John Hancock, please contact our HR Service Centre at 1-877-455-2055. Fraudulent job postings can also be reported to recruitment@manulife.com.
From time to time, Manulife/John Hancock, like the brands of other financial institutions, are misappropriated by criminals. High-tech or low-tech, these schemes are widespread and constantly evolving. Phishing is a general term for emails, text messages and websites fabricated by criminals designed to look like a communication that came from well-known and trusted businesses, financial institutions and government agencies in an attempt to collect personal, financial and sensitive information from recipients. This fraudulent activity is also known as social engineering. Variations of the same theme include more, low-tech “advance fee” schemes conducted via email or regular mail, where a victim is induced to pay money to someone in anticipation of something of greater value, or a telemarketing scheme where victims are induced to supply personal or financial information via telephone.
Lottery sweepstakes scam
Manulife/John Hancock do not participate in lottery/sweepstakes contests. This scam involves the receipt of an unsolicited letter or email announcing lottery or sweepstakes winnings and could, if received by regular mail, include a corresponding cheque. The letter and cheque may reflect the name, address and logo of Manulife/John Hancock. You will be asked to deposit the enclosed cheque into your bank account and return a certain amount, via a wire service or bank for example, to cover fees or taxes. Do not deposit the cheque nor correspond with lottery or sweepstakes representatives; the letter and cheque bearing the Manulife/John Hancock brand is counterfeit. Do not click on any links included in electronic communication.
Fraudsters, using the Manulife/John Hancock brand, advertise loans or loan consolidation services on the Internet or in other publications. In order to “qualify” for a loan, unsuspecting victims are asked to provide personal identifying, financial, banking or credit card information via a website or email. A communication will follow approving the loan, but demanding that processing fees be paid upfront before the loan is provided. If a cheque is received, you will be asked to deposit it into your bank account and return a certain amount, via a wire service or bank for example, to cover fees or taxes. Do not deposit the cheque nor correspond with loan services representatives; the letter and cheque bearing the Manulife/John Hancock brand is counterfeit.
Fraudsters purchase merchandise from a seller through legitimate websites or online classified ads. Shortly thereafter, the seller receives what purports to be a Manulife/John Hancock cheque in an amount exceeding the cost of the merchandise. Despite the explanation for the overpayment, the buyer is asked to deposit the cheque into their bank account and return the excess amount via a wire service or bank, for example. Do not deposit the cheque nor correspond with purchaser of the merchandise nor correspond with the seller; cheques bearing the Manulife/John Hancock brand are counterfeit.
You receive an unsolicited letter, allegedly from an attorney, banker or even from someone claiming to be a Manulife/John Hancock representative. The letter notes that you are entitled to a large inheritance from a distant relative or wealthy benefactor who has died. You are often the only resource available to help secure the money, the amount of which money can vary, but typically in the millions of dollars. The fraudster notes that the money is difficult to retrieve due to government and bank restrictions or taxes in a particular country. Despite the seemingly elaborate story described in the letter, do not correspond with the sender. Do not provide personal identifying, financial, banking or credit card information. A letter or cheque bearing the Manulife/John Hancock brand is counterfeit.
A romance scam is when a fraudster fakes romantic intention towards a victim, gaining their affection and then using that goodwill to commit fraud. Fraudsters post profiles on dating websites, social media accounts, classified sites or online forums to search for new victims. Communications are exchanged between the fraudster and victim over a period until the fraudster feels they have connected with the victim enough to ask for money to cover medical expenses, rent, car payments etc. Fraudsters prey on the victim's false sense of a relationship to lure them into sending money.
While fraud can take many forms, it is generally known as misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact or willful or deliberate act or failure to act with the intention of obtaining an unauthorized benefit. Manulife/John Hancock may learn of a misuse of its brands involving a variation of our Company name and logo. Educating yourself about fraud is your best protection against it.
Educating yourself about fraud is your best protection against it – here are some helpful hints to get you started.
Helpful hints
Do not open emails from unknown sources, or from an institution you do not do business with, delete it immediately.
If you were not expecting the email, and it is from a business institution you utilize, call the financial institution rather than clicking on the link.
When submitting any financial information, look at the address bar and ensure that it starts with https:// rather than http://
Look at the senders email address, if it does not tie to the institution purportedly sending the message, delete the email.
Do not provide your personal identifying, financial, banking or credit card information to a party that you have not fully vetted.
If submitting an e-mail message to an institution you have a relationship with, treat the e-mail as if it were a postcard.
Don't include any information that you wouldn't be willing to write on a postcard.
Be suspicious of unsolicited correspondence alerting you to winning a lottery/sweepstakes or an unexpected inheritance.
Never respond to an email received from someone unknown to you. Hover your cursor over the link in the email.
If it shows something different than what it is purporting to be or just does not look right to you, do not click on the link and instead call your financial institution to ask about the email.
Do not click on links, open attachments or download files sent to you from someone unknown to you.
Be aware of email spoofing - when a fraudster forges an email header (from address) so that it appears the message came from a legitimate source in order to trick people into opening it.
Look for misspelling within the email or broken English. These are indications that the email is not from your financial institution and is in reality a phishing email.
Always use a secure website to send personal or financial information. Ensure that the padlock icon is visible in your browser.
Log into your online accounts on a regular basis. Report any suspicious transactions to your financial institution immediately.
Install anti-virus/anti-spyware software and keep it up to date to detect known malware. Today's Internet Security packages incorporate this type of software with a firewall and website reputation software, which, when installed and activated, can help prevent the download of malware to your PC or prevent you from connecting to a known malicious website.
Create a user account on your PC that does not have administrative rights to the PC and use that new account for everything but updating or installing new software. This will help prevent malware from being installed to your PC should you click on a malicious link.
Bookmark web addresses on your browser for sites you visit frequently and for future visits, use only that bookmarked address to access the site. For example, type the John Hancock Investments website [jhinvestments.com] to go to our site and then bookmark the Web address on your Internet browser.
Review your credit report every four to six months for unauthorized activity.
Do not deposit a check or similar instrument into your bank account without verifying the check with the issuing bank. Counterfeit checks will not clear and be returned unpayable.
Never wire funds from your bank account until a deposited check clears. Manulife/John Hancock do not request personal and/or financial information via email or text or up-front fees.
Be aware that criminals may obtain pieces of your background from information that you post on social media websites. For example, a résumé that you post to the Internet most likely contains your name, residential / email address and telephone phone number, as well as education and work histories. Fraudsters will use this information to extract additional information from you.
Be wary when someone you meet on social media wants to quickly move to a private mode of communication (email, text).
Be suspicious when someone you haven't met in person immediately professes their affection for you.
Below is a directory of resources that may offer guidance and assistance. If you have suffered a financial loss as a result of fraud, you are also encouraged to contact your local police.
