Octogenarian grandmother duped out of $10K in phone scam; daughter furious about bank’s inaction

What ultimately convinced Cecile Victor to transfer $10,000 to scammers late last month was the frighteningly realistic nature of the dilemma they presented.

Early one morning, Victor received a call from someone pretending to be her grandson. He claimed he had been in a serious accident, rear-ending a pregnant woman, and was now facing charges. He told her he urgently needed money to post bail.

“It sounded like him 100 per cent,” Victor recalled, and was worried her grandson could be hurt.

To strengthen the ruse, the scammers knew details — including a dinner invitation the Victors, both in their 80s, had made to their grandson for the following Sunday — and that their grandson was training to be a pilot (he was flying at the time the Victors were being scammed).

The call was then passed to someone claiming to be the grandson’s lawyer who said they needed an initial $5,000. Another $5,000 was requested the next day. Without hesitation, Victor went to her local TD Bank, where she and her husband Sam had been customers for 60 years.

Both times she provided tellers with a piece of paper on which she’d written the transfer details for the receiving account. No questions were asked. And just like that, the money was gone.

Victor only clued into the scam when, after the second transfer had been made, asked to speak with her grandson, and asked him what his girlfriend’s phone number was. The man playing the part sounded different this time, and abruptly hung up.

“It was too late, everything was done,” she said.

The Victors’ experience is a textbook example of the “grandparent scam,” a type of fraud Winnipeg police warned about on Tuesday after receiving multiple reports in recent weeks.

In these scams, fraudsters pose as police officers, lawyers or even the victim’s grandchild, as they did in this case.

They prey on fear and urgency, pressuring victims to act fast. They often claim there’s a “gag order” in place, preventing the victim from discussing the situation with anyone, and demand cash or cryptocurrency, either to be picked up in person or mailed.

According to data from Winnipeg police, there have been 109 reported cases since they began tracking the grandparent scam in 2022. In 2024, there were 63 incidents, a sharp increase from just 12 in 2022 and 17 in 2023. So far, 17 cases have been reported in 2025.

While police couldn’t explain the abrupt rise in 2024, they noted that public education efforts have helped keep numbers lower this year.

Police say people should be wary of urgent calls asking for money. If someone claims to be a family member in trouble, hang up and call them directly using a known number. If the caller says they’re from law enforcement, hang up and call local police using a trusted number, not the one the caller provides.

And a reminder: in Canada, bail cannot be paid with cash or cryptocurrency, and police will never go to someone’s house to collect money.

“If something feels off, trust your instincts — it probably is,” police said in a release.

Meanwhile, the Victors are left frustrated by their bank’s lack of action.

After the scam, their daughter, Carla Sasley, flew in from Calgary to help her parents recover their lost money, but they are still waiting for a response.

“I want TD taken to task. Nobody questioned it. Nobody thought twice about it,” said Sasley, a former banker, who added the family was supposed to hear back from the bank’s fraud department Monday.

“I think they had an obligation (to help spot the scam). They keep saying they take it seriously and they look after their customers. It’s all a bunch of bulls—t.”

She and her parents are left wondering why the tellers didn’t flag the transactions, especially given the sums involved and the fact that it was highly unusual for them to request such transfers two days in a row.

“They should have asked where the money was going and for what reason, but they didn’t say a word,” Sasley said. “They never called a manager over to figure out what to do.”

A spokesperson for TD said Wednesday they had been in contact with the department that is reviewing the status and the next steps of the Victors’ case. The bank did not have an update on the matter, however, and said it would take a few business days to get an answer.

For now, the only advice the couple can offer is to just hang up, or simply don’t answer the phone in the first place.

“Because it was his voice at the very beginning, it sounded just like him,” Victor said. “I’ve heard a lot of people telling me about this scam and that one. How can you be smart? Things are just too real. So just hang up.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca