Victims have lost more than $100,000 over 15 different incidents of ‘grandparent scams’ in the last week alone, Winnipeg police say.
These types of scams involve criminals preying on the elderly by claiming to be a family member under arrest and in need of bail money, or the legal representative of a loved one who has supposedly been detained.
Police said Thursday that their financial crime unit is investigating the incidents, which appear to be escalating.
According to police, many of the scammers have gone beyond simply relying on e-transfers or pre-paid gift cards to receive money from victims — in many cases sending couriers or rideshare drivers to physically visit a victim’s home to collect.
“It’s an interesting escalation of this scam,” said Const. Jay Murray.
“It’s probably just an evolution of the scam. There’s been a lot of awareness about pre-paid gift cards.
“It was a unique change to the scam that certainly heightens it as well. The catch is there’s increased opportunity for us to collect evidence now.”
Part of the reason the scam works, police said, is that criminals will frequently fool their elderly victims into thinking there’s a “gag order” on the case, and that it’s against the law to discuss the matter even with other family members.
Because of the alleged gag order, victims are often told to lie to the bank that they need the money for something innocuous, like home repairs.
Police said Winnipeggers can protect themselves by talking to older loved ones and making sure they’re aware that the courts would never send someone to collect money at a person’s home, and that a legitimate lawyer would never ask someone to lie to their bank.
Resources for those affected by this type of fraud are available on the police website.
“I think it can be very embarrassing for someone if they lose money and find out it’s a scam… but there’s nothing to be embarrassed about, it’s very important to report these scams so we can learn from them,” Murray said.
“I think the first difficulty is getting the individual to report it. We expect that there are a number of these frauds that haven’t been reported.”
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