The Better Business Bureau of Southern Alberta and East Kootenay (BBB) is once again warning people to be wary of the so-called Grandparent Scam.
“It’s not new, unfortunately. It kind of goes in waves,” said BBB Vice President of Marketing and Communications Camie Leard. “We’ll see a whole bunch over a short period of time, then it might go away for a while just so people let their guard down and forget about it and then it pops back up again.”
In this scam, the fraudster calls up the intended victim pretending to be a friend or relative in dire need of money. Often elderly people are targeted by someone posing as a grandchild. The scammer will tell the victim they have been in an accident or arrested and need money sent to them via a money transfer provider like Western Union.
BBB President Sandra Crozier-McKee said “typically we’ve seen scammers asking for wire transfers, but now we’re staring to see scammers getting people to purchase grocery gift cards as a way of obtaining personal financial information. This is a new twist on an old scam that we want people to be aware of.”
Seniors are sometimes lonely and are happy to get a phone call and the scammers are counting on that, according to Leard.
“The people perpetrating the scams are really good at what they do,” Leard said. “They’re very adept at conning people and getting information from people without them recognizing that’s what’s happening. Someone will call and say ‘Grandpa, it’s me,’ and the elderly person will say ‘Is that you Joey? and then the scammer has that information and he might not have had that name to begin with.”
According to Leard, the scam may be changed up a bit depending on the time of year.
“During the winter months what we get a lot of is ‘Grandma, I’m stuck in Mexico. I’ve had a car accident’ because a lot of people are traveling so we do see that going on in the winter,” she said.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), a joint initiative between the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Competition Bureau Canada, recommends seniors, in particular, confirm with other relatives the whereabouts of the family member or friend from whom they’ve allegedly received a call.
As well, the CAFC recommends never voluntarily giving out family members names or information to unknown callers and to always question urgent requests for money.
“We recommend, for grandparents especially, never wire money to somebody. These days you can email money so there’s no need to wire money. It’s dangerous because anybody could pick it up at the other end,” Leard said. “We recommend seniors keep their grandchildrens’ cell phone numbers on file so they have them and always if you get a distressed phone all, double check. Give the kid a call.”
