MONCTON – Two Moncton postal workers are being recognized after they prevented an elderly woman from losing thousands of dollars in an attempted phone scam.
Rob Snider said his mother-in-law, who did not want to be identified because she felt embarrassed, received a strange phone call last week.
“A person called in a very agitated state, in a panic situation and said that her grandson was injured and he needed money right away for medical treatment,” he said.
The caller identified himself as Ivan Stankovic, and said the woman needed to transfer $2,800 to an account in the Dominican Republic immediately. He said he was a friend of her grandson and she shouldn’t tell anyone.
“In the state of mind that they put you in it’s almost like, what harm’s going to come to that family member or that close friend,” Snider said.
Snider said he is speaking out to stop similar scams from happening to other people.
“Grandparents will probably do anything for a family member,” he said. “To prey upon that fear is the lowest level of despicable action.”
It’s a scam known as the ‘granny scam” or “grandparent scam”. The caller sounds convincing, often tricking the victim into supplying information like the name of the grandchild.
In this case, the victim went to a post office booth at the Home Hardware on Elmwood Drive to try to send the money.
“The lady came in telling us she wanted to send a Moneygram, but she wasn’t sure what it was,” said Chantal Gagnon, one of the two postal workers who helped her. “We explained it to her and we filled out the form for her and we started going through things, but her card had a limit on it.”
The woman left to go to the bank to get cash. While she was gone, Gagnon and her colleague realized something was wrong.
“She seemed concerned to us and stressed out,” said Gagnon. “She wasn’t making us feel comfortable in actually proceeding with this transaction.”
When the woman returned, Gagnon and her colleague, who didn’t want to speak to the media, told her they thought she was being scammed and she should go home and try to contact her grandson or his parents.
The woman took their advice and learned that her grandson was in Canada and he was fine.
Gagnon explained that it is very easy to send money through Moneygram and it gets to the person receiving it within 10 minutes. She said there are some security measures in place.
“We can add security questions with answers to go with that,” she said. “And there’s also a reference number that the person does need to pick up on the other end, along with government-issued ID.”
Canada Post trains its employees to spot the signs of a scam. Gagnon said she has heard of it happening a few times a year.
The scammer is often outside the country, which can make it hard to investigate, according to Const. Damien Thériault of the Codiac RCMP. However, he said the police still need people to report when it happens.
“They have to call the anti-fraud centre to report it. Those are things that we need to know are going on, so we can concentrate our efforts in finding this people,” he said. “At least if we know they’re going on, we can put advisories out for people to be aware of them.”
Many people also don’t report the fraud because they are too embarrassed, but Thériault said people shouldn’t feel embarrassed because the scammers are very clever.
“People are preying on them. They’re taking advantage of their emotions and don’t be ashamed if it happens to you,” he said. “Report it.”
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