OPP issue warning after 2 Huron County residents swindled out of over $350K

Provincial police in Huron County say they are investigating two recently reported fraud cases from the area in which residents were swindled out of close to $400,000.

In one instance, a person from Bluewater was contacted over the phone by someone claiming to work for an investment company. The scammer offered to invest their money for them and the victim made an initial investment via credit card of $3,000.

Police say the victim then allowed the scammers access to their desktop computers, which gave them access to their bank account.

The fraudsters then made off with another $80,000 before the victim eventually put two and two together and called the police on Sunday.

A day later, the OPP were contacted by a senior resident of Huron East who said they had been bilked out of $300,000 since last fall.

The victim told police that two men had shown up at their home to do repairs that the homeowner had never asked to be done.

The pair then talked the victim into allowing them to do some brickwork on the house and then returned and did insulation work and barn cleanup.

In doing so, they told the victim not to tell anyone about the work that was being done and eventually collected $300,000 from the victim for their efforts.

OPP say they are still investigating the cases and noted several ways that people can prevent themselves from falling victim to swindlers.

They warn residents to not give out personal information to strangers and to never respond to text messages from strange phone numbers.

Police also say not to accept friend requests or share images with people they don’t know and to get several quotes for home repairs.