Vancouver police, volunteers warn seniors about rising “grand parent scam”

A team of community policing volunteers made the rounds in East Hastings to warn the public about the “grandparent scam” otherwise known as the “bail money scam”.

According to the Vancouver Police Department, the scam that targets seniors has become an increasing problem in the last few months. Sgt. Steve Addison describes the scam as a complex operation that’s being operated both locally and in other parts of Canada.

“The scammers, what they do is they prey on the victim and their love for the family member and fear that the family member is in a difficult situation. So all too often they’re very willing. Just no questions asked for money,” Addison said.

Scammers will go through a potential victim’s social media accounts and research information about a family member, like a grandchild, or of any recent trips they took. The fraudsters will then use the obtained information to pose as a family member who needs money to get out of a problem. They then send a courier to the victim’s home to pick up the money.

“Just last week, we had a woman in her 80s whose son has cerebral palsy and requires medication. She got a phone call from somebody that she thought was her grandson who was in jail and in trouble. She handed over the money to somebody that she thought was with the court system for bail money. Hours later she gets a call from her grandson. They pieced it together, they were able to contact us. We were actually able to mobilize officers and intercept the money that she had sent by courier before it arrived in its destination on the other side of the country and return that money to the victim.”

Addison says cases like this are few and far between, most people never get their money back.

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While police have been working to raise awareness through traditional and social media, Addison says they recognize that not everyone can access these. This is why volunteers are also making the rounds to warn people in person. Police say they’re encouraging people to have conversations with their family members.

“We want younger people to have conversations with their grandparents, maybe with their elderly, neighbors, other seniors in their lives because by and large, it’s seniors that are being targeted,” Addison said.

Addison says whenever attention is brought to certain scams, the scammers often lie low.

“What we know is that when we bring a lot of attention to these scams, the people who are doing them tend to fade away, they tend to go elsewhere,” Addison said, “We’re trying to keep our foot on the gas here. Raise as much awareness about this as possible to prevent the crimes from happening.”

Anyone who believes they may have been targetted is asked to call the police.

“We don’t want anybody to knowingly or not, put themselves in a situation where they could be having face-to-face contact with one of these criminals. So the best thing to do if this happens to you if you become aware of it, contact us.”

 

With files from Angela Bower