North Vancouver parents targeted in new telephone scam

Mounties in North Vancouver are warning the public, but particularly parents, about new telephone scams asking for money.

According to the North Vancouver RCMP, the telephone calls are picking out parents and grandparents, with callers identifying themselves as law enforcement, “and asking for bail money or jewellery for a son, daughter, grandchild or [another] family member.”

The callers apparently know the names of their loved ones and ask for money to bail out their family members.

“Law enforcement will never call you asking for money,” Cpl. Melissa Jongema of North Vancouver RCMP said. “If you receive a phone call where bail money, jewellery or gift cards are requested for a family member’s release from jail, please do not provide any money or items to anyone. Hang up and report the incident to your local police.”

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In a statement, Jongema said recently an officer had responded to an incident where the suspect called the victim and told them their son had been arrested by police.

“The suspect asked the victim to mail $50,000 in jewellery in a parcel to Quebec. The victim did initially send their family heirlooms to the suspect; however, the officer recovered the $50,000 package and returned the precious heirlooms to the victim,” Jongema wrote.

Mounties suggest in order to best protect yourself from fraud and scam calls, you should be careful about posting personal details and names of family members on social media, make your social media accounts private, change your online passwords and make sure they’re all unique and different from each other, and report any scam calls to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre’s online reporting system.

The warning comes after a driver was pulled over early Monday morning in North Vancouver in what police described as a “fraudulent traffic stop.”

At approximately 3:30 a.m. Monday, a driver going eastbound along E 13th Street near Moody Avenue in the City of North Vancouver was pulled over “after seeing red and blue flashing lights displayed on the vehicle behind them.”

The suspect told the driver he had been pulled over for using a GPS device on his cell phone, and then produced a debit/credit machine and demanded payment for the alleged violation.

“It is alarming to us anytime someone pretends to be a police officer. Especially in our situation where that person tried to use that position to take money from someone,” Jongema said at the time.

If you receive a scam telephone call in North Vancouver from someone pretending to be law enforcement, Mounties are asking you to report it to the North Vancouver RCMP at (604) 985-1311.