When ‘grandkids’ are not who you think they are

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/11/2024 (324 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As almost anyone who has been a grandchild can attest, there are few things more limitless than the kindness and generosity of a grandparent.

In addition to making them the loveliest people we know, however, the seemingly boundless benevolence of our senior relations also makes them the preferred targets of con artists looking to exploit grandparents’ kindly inclinations in pursuit of quick and easily concealable material gain.

In response to a recent wave of so-called “grandparent scams” in rural Manitoba, RCMP last week issued a warning to seniors (and the families and communities that support them) to be on guard against suspicious emails, phone calls or social-media contacts requesting money to help out a grandchild or other relative who is suddenly in urgent need of financial aid.

Deceptions that target vulnerable seniors have been around for a long time, of course, but the advent of social media platforms has made it much easier for profit-seeking predators to gather the information they need to craft and execute their schemes.

According to the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, grandparent scams (also known as grandchild scams and/or emergency scams) “usually involve a phone call or email from someone pretending to be your grandchild or a loved one in trouble. A new variant of the scheme has emerged where the fraudsters contact the grandparent via their social media (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, etc.) or by text message instead of a phone call.”

Pretending to be a grandchild who is in distress, or a lawyer or law-enforcement official speaking on their behalf, the caller or correspondent describes a mishap such as a traffic accident that has resulted in an arrest or an injury and asks for emergency funds to cover bail, medical costs or the like.

Pleading embarrassment or fear of reprisal, the “grandchild” begs the victim to keep everything confidential, and offers an arrangement — usually a bank transfer or credit-card transaction — by which the funds can be discreetly delivered.

The entire process usually occurs remotely; in the case of the recent scams in rural Manitoba, however, the scammers and victims actually met face to face — in Portage la Prairie, a fraudster actually went to the victim’s home to collect the cash; in another incident in nearby MacGregor, a meeting was arranged in town.

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For the perpetrators, speed and secrecy are key components of the crimes. Victims are made to feel immense pressure to act quickly, and the money is moved and long gone before the seniors in question become aware they’ve been scammed.

In an informational video released by the Edmonton Police Service, one such victim — who was scammed out of $230,000 to help a “grandson” who purportedly had been in an accident and charged, first with reckless driving and then with vehicular manslaughter — tearfully recalls her reaction to the call: “I couldn’t stand the thought of seeing him in jail.”

And therein lies the dilemma that drives this form of crime: generally speaking, grandparents would do anything for their grandkids. And a certain criminal element has concocted highly effective strategies for taking advantage of that deep-rooted kindness.

It’s not a problem law enforcement can solve; police tend not to become involved until after the money is gone. “We can’t arrest our way out of this problem,” says EPS financial crime specialist Det. Trevor Semotiuk. “We need to raise awareness.”

Grandparent scams are not going to disappear any time soon; if anything, they will become more intricate and aggressive as new avenues for online mischief emerge. It’s up to the rest of us to help protect the kindest people we know from the most malevolent among us.