Scammers are picking on seniors in northern Manitoba, RCMP say

The voice on the other end of the phone sounded convincing — a supposed nephew who was in trouble with the law and urgently needed bail money.

Except it wasn’t George Fontaine’s nephew and the emergency wasn’t real. The caller was a scammer looking for their next victim, while trying to pull off a variation of a grandparent scam.

“It’s very convincing. If you go through the process, you can see how easily it is to be duped,” said Fontaine, the mayor of Flin Flon, where police on Wednesday reported recent scam calls to seniors.

Fontaine said the scammer who posed as his nephew claimed they needed $700.

“They (said they) had a minor accident, somebody was hurt and they needed a little bit of money so they could get out of jail,” he said.

Fontaine said he and his wife, who answered the call, didn’t fall for it. He urged people to be cautious and refrain from sending money if a caller claims to be in a similar predicament.

“Start calling your real family and ask, ‘Where is (the relative)?” he said.

RCMP said there has been an increase in grandparent scam calls in northern Manitoba, which previously had very few reports.

In recent months, four seniors in Flin Flon reported receiving a call from a scammer claiming to be a relative or a relative’s lawyer. The person said they needed bail money to be sent to an out-of-province address.

Two victims sent thousands of dollars, while a third senior’s transaction was intercepted in time and returned. It’s not yet known whether the four cases are directly related, said police, who continue to investigate.

Many calls go unreported to police. Some scammers pose as police officers.

Const. Ricky Perkins, a member of Manitoba RCMP’s cyber and financial crime unit, said grandparent scams are becoming more sophisticated as criminals find new ways to dupe victims.

“They’re preying on a vulnerable group that has a lot of trust and wants to protect their loved ones,” Perkins said. “My best advice is to hang up the phone. Call your grandchild or your loved one (to verify).”

Examples have recently emerged elsewhere in Canada and the U.S. in which scammers used artificial intelligence and an audio or video clip to clone a loved one’s voice.

“I haven’t seen it in our cases,” Perkins said. “That’s something that is a fear out there. It is a real thing that could happen, so as far as a proactive thing, be aware that even if it sounds like your grandson or granddaughter, it could be AI.”

Deepfake videos could be the next tactic, he said.

Perkins said fraudsters could be scouring social media accounts where users share details or photos of their family members. In some past cases, names and relationships were taken from online obituaries.

Scammers, often trained or experienced, tend to urge potential victims not to talk to other family members or authorities about the phone call.

Some victims are told to wire or transfer money to an account while others are asked to hand over cash in person, or send cryptocurrency.

Perkins said victims he’s spoken to lost $1,000 to $5,000. Victims tend to feel embarrassed or lack trust after their good faith was taken advantage of, he noted.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has said victims reported combined losses of about $3 million last year.

Several media outlets recently reported cases where victims were refused refunds by their financial institutions.

Connie Newman, executive director of the Manitoba Association of Senior Communities, regularly hears stories about people losing money to all types of scams.

A financial loss can create hardship for seniors who have a fixed income, she noted.

Newman urged people of all ages not to divulge personal information to callers, and to talk to relatives and friends about scams to help raise awareness.

“It’s ugly out there, and the conversation has to happen,” she said. “Ask the question, ‘Do you know what a scam is? Do you know anyone who’s being scammed?’”

Those making the calls could be anywhere in Canada or other parts of the world, which makes it tougher to identify and arrest suspects.

Earlier this year, U.S. authorities charged 25 Canadians who allegedly defrauded seniors in more than 40 states of more than US$21 million. A court document said the suspects operated out of call centres in and around Montreal.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.