Senior citizen loses $10,000 to phone scammers
Posted Dec 22, 2009 05:30:18 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RCMP are investigating a phone scam in Nova Scotia that robbed a 90-year-old woman of at least $10,000.
The Amherst senior received a phone call from a man claiming to be her grandson on the weekend. He told her he’d been arrested and needed money to get out of jail.
RCMP Cst. Dal Hutchinson says a second man then took the phone and said he was her grandson’s lawyer. He told the woman to mail the money as a Canada Post money order…
“The victim sent the first money order for several thousand dollars,” he said. “The following day she was contacted by the male claiming to be her grandson’s lawyer, requesting that she forward more money for the grandson to be released from jail.”
He says the woman found out too late that she’d been had.
“In this situation, unforutnately, the victim made a couple of telephone calls after the face and confirmed that her grandson had in fact not been arrested,” he said.
Hutchinson says it’s worrying to see fraudsters playing on people’s emotions to pull off their scams.
“It does concern us,” he said. “Ninety years of age, she’s been defrauded of close to $10,000. We look at it as preying on innocent people and the elderly.”
Hutchinson says the only advice police can offer is to always verify the story when someone calls asking for money, and alert police or Phonebusters.
RCMP and Canada Post are still investigating.
