‘Grandparent scam’ strikes the West Island

WATCH ABOVE: Seniors who use the Meals on Wheels program in the West Island have reportedly been targeted by a phone scammer asking for money. Global’s Billy Shields has more.

ST-ANNE-DE-BELLEVUE – The local Meals on Wheels in the West Island is sounding the alarm over what it’s calling a phone scam aimed at senior citizens.

“At the end of February, a concerned citizen called us up and was concerned about a call that she’d received,” said Lynda Barrett, the executive director of Volunteer West Island, which runs the Meals on Wheels program in the West Island.

Barrett said she’s received three reports that have all followed the same pattern – a Meals on Wheels client getting a phone call asking for donations on behalf of the program.

Barrett said Meals on Wheels doesn’t directly solicit donations, but lamented that one client had already fallen victim to the scheme.

“I know definitely one person who’s been taken,” she said.

She added that the scenario is sometimes difficult to expose because of reticence on the part of victims.

“A lot of seniors are so vulnerable,” she said.

“They just don’t want to be in the limelight.”

Last month, Mounties raided a boiler room in Montreal’s west end and made arrests in what they termed a “grandparent” scheme aimed at seniors in the States.

Now, it appears a similar scam has come to the West Island, and it is something that has those who work with the elderly on edge.

The managers at the Residence Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue say phone scams are a constant threat.

“If it’s not someone we’re familiar with, we go ahead and take down the person’s information and give it to the family,” said Catherine Bichay, the home’s manager.

“We do not hand the phone to residents.”

Such a filtering system has gone a long way toward thwarting would-be scammers,.

But fraudsters are persistent – Bichay said she was taken herself in a similar donation scam eight years ago.

But the problem is especially acute for elderly people who are in a vulnerable spot.

“You’re losing everything. You’re losing your authority, your driver’s licence,” she said.

“And then someone does this to you? It’s horrible.”