In response to an ever-increasing number of seniors being targeted by frauds and scams, the BC RCMP Federal Policing Prevention and Engagement (FPPE) team launched a proactive community outreach campaign to prevent seniors from falling victim to the vast array of sophisticated and constantly evolving scams.
Based on recent reports from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and a rise in financial crime complaints to police, it’s evident that criminals continue targeting BC seniors through several forms of scams such as the Emergency/Grandparent, Extortion, Bank Investigator, and Prize scams.
For Emergency or Grandparent scams, suspects contact seniors, claiming that their family member or grandchild was involved in an incident, or criminally charged with an offence, and that a fee or fine would be required for the release of the family member. Extortion scams often use recorded messages where the fraudsters claim to be a representative of a federal government entity, or a major organization, and that the victim’s social insurance number or other personal information has been linked to a crime. The scammers then demand a payment with the threat of arrest or imprisonment, and may request other personal information that could be used for further identity theft. Criminals use Bank Investigator scams to contact the victim claiming to be a financial institution, or a credit card company representative who is investigating unauthorized activity on their account, and request…
