Bring cash.
That’s one way to avoid the kind of scam that nearly ensnared an elderly Kelowna couple who received a call from their “grandson” asking for money on Tuesday.
Coverage of scam warnings by the RCMP on Globalnews.ca:
The couple had taken a call from the “grandson,” who told them he was arrested for impaired driving after he suffered a broken nose in a car accident, the RCMP said in a news release.
The “grandson” said he was at the courthouse, and that he needed $1,000 in bail money, and asked them to transfer him the funds electronically.
They came to the Kelowna RCMP detachment with $1,000 in hand, hoping to post bail.
READ MORE: Kelowna RCMP warning people about two money scams
“It didn’t take long for the Kelowna Mountie, assigned to assist the elderly couple, to determine that their grandson was not in police custody and the couple were likely being targeted by a scammer,” Cpl. Jesse O’Donaghey said in the news release.
The scam is known as the “Grandparent Scam” or the “Emergency Scam” — one in which a person who claims to be in distress contacts an elderly couple asking for money.
The RCMP noted that victims of such scams usually don’t verify the scammer’s story before they hand over the cash.
Eventually, the elderly couple called their actual grandson and learned he wasn’t involved in a crash.
“Fortunately the man and woman did not lose any of their money,” he said.