The so-called “grandparent scam” is getting under the skin of local enforcement agencies like the OPP.
“I guess the best way you could put it is we’re annoyed, says OPP Const. Steven Duguay.
A day after the Windsor Police Service warned of a rise in scam phone calls, OPP received an overwhelming number of reports of the same crime.
“We’ve had phone calls and walk-ins. Walk-ins in Leamington, I think we had upwards of six people come in and complain the same thing,” says Duguay, who adds Kingsville and Lakeshore OPP detachments also experienced an uptick.
The scammers all have the same game: trying to take your money.
“They’re always using a member of the family that’s in trouble,” explains Duguay. “They’ve been arrested or injured and they need help and need money to get out of the jam that they’re in.”
Barb Morris received a call asking for bail money after her son was supposedly arrested by Toronto police.
“I hung up right away,” she says, explaining that she then called Toronto police who confirmed the call was a scam. “I was so happy that I didn’t go with my first, ‘Oh no I need to help my son’ because I would have fallen for it.”
There are a variety of other scams to keep an eye out for. Dorothy Edmondson received two different calls on Tuesday alone.
“’Hi, this is so and so from Visa.’ I just hang up and don’t tell them anything,” she says, explaining that she doesn’t own a Visa card. “I also…
