The City of Toronto is warning visitors to the Toronto Islands to be careful about where they buy their ferry tickets, after several scam websites have popped up. “We’ve received reports of fraudulent websites claiming to be the City of Toronto and selling fake ferry tickets,” the city said in a statement posted to X. “These websites are a scam, only purchase ferry tickets from toronto.ca/ferry.” An illustration attached to the post shows a phone with a URL that reads “toronto-ferryticket.com,” along with an official-looking notice about purchasing tickets for the ferry. “All City of Toronto webpages contain ‘toronto.ca,’” the post notes. The scam website warning comes after it was recently announced that children, youth and seniors can ride the Toronto ferries for free in the month of August. On July 30, Toronto city council passed a motion introduced by Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik to offer free ferry rides. “In recognition of the tens of thousands of Torontonians who made their voices heard, we’re going to make the ferry free for kids and seniors for the month of August.” According to Chow, the money for the program will come from Toronto’s Section 37 funding, money contributed by developers to the city in exchange for permission to build at greater height or density. “We hope that families, young people and seniors take advantage of these free fares, visit the Island, have fun and see why this green space is so precious,” Chow said in a statement. With files from Joshua McGinnis
