Elderly Nanaimo couple loses $400K in year-long lotto scam
Posted March 10, 2022 9:15 am.
Last Updated March 10, 2022 9:50 am.
An elderly couple in Nanaimo has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in what the RCMP is calling one of the largest scams it’s ever seen in the community.
They’re out about $400,000 after they were targeted by a person or persons claiming the pair had won big in a lottery.
“The financial loss the couple experienced is significant and is certainly one of the largest we have seen in Nanaimo,” said Const. Gary O’Brien of the Nanaimo RCMP.
“The average person loses about $6,100 when they’re scammed, and that’s based on data collected by the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. This one far exceeds that.”
Mounties say the two people, both in their 80s, first received a call in early 2021 from someone claiming to work for Readers Digest.
The caller apparently told the couple they had won $18.5 million, as well as a Mercedes-Benz. The couple was told in order to receive their winnings, they had to first pay what were described as “a few’ administrative fees.
The RCMP says the couple then received “official looking documents” from “what appeared to be the Internal Revenue Service.” Those documents, Mounties explain, suggested the pair had to pay taxes on their winnings and that they had to arrange it through Mega Millions.
Nanaimo couple loses thousands in Lotto scam https://t.co/A3z79pdrQl #Nanaimo
— Nanaimo RCMP (@NanaimoRCMP) March 10, 2022
The couple ended up making the payments over the course of the year. Scammers told the couple to send them cash through money orders.
“The ‘few’ administrative fees led to hundreds of bank drafts being drawn on their bank account and thousands of dollars going out — that’s about one every three days. An incredible amount of money. They never got a cent back, they never got a token. Often, [scammers] will send paper clips or something, a birthday card or a Christmas card — [the couple] didn’t get anything. So sad,” Const. O’Brien explained.
He says the couple didn’t realize they were being scammed until police convinced them otherwise.
“Our investigators were led to them via a parallel investigation, which we can’t comment on. Only then we told them, ‘This is a fraud, this is a scam,’ and it took a while for our members to actually convince them,” O’Brien said.
He says this incident “goes to shows that if fraudsters believe they have convinced you of their legitimacy, they will not stop until essentially there is no more money to give or you figure out it is a scam.”
The RCMP is urging people to be aware of fraudulent activity and to have a conversation with your family members to help them avoid being the victim of a scam.
-With files from Mike Lloyd
