Grandparent scam in BC
Posted Apr 6, 2010 9:01 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The RCMP are seeing a rash of cases of the so-called “Grandparent Scam” targeting seniors in BC’s Okanagan Valley.
It’s a type of telephone scam targeting grandparents, convincing them to wire money to people posing as grandchildren in financial or legal trouble.
The latest case happened last month, when a man called a woman in Vernon claiming he was her grandson needing money for a flight because he was stuck in Toronto.
The woman’s real son was in Vancouver but the thief convinced her to wire $2,600 through Western Union.
RCMP say the perpetrators research details about their victims, possibly through social networking websites such as Facebook or magazine subscriptions, to learn their relatives’ names and ages
