‘Most of these frauds now, they are so elaborate. They involve groups of people because they’re making large amounts of money in these scams,’ says Collingwood OPP detective
A veteran police detective addresses an elderly woman on the front steps of her Collingwood home. He’s holding a cashed cheque for $140,000, money he already knew she had been scammed out of.
“I’m Detective Sergeant Jason Lloyd with the Ontario Provincial Police in Collingwood,” he says, handing her his business card. “Do you recognize this cheque?”
She explains it was her cheque and that she wrote it to pay for renovations to her kitchen and bathroom.
“They even painted the walls,” she tells the detective. “I’m not too happy with the paint, but they painted my walls.”
Lloyd asks if he can come in to get a closer look, but the woman denies his request.
“It’s none of your business,” she says. “I’m happy with the work.”
For the rest of the day, Lloyd and other police officers on his investigative team from the Collingwood OPP crime division worked to convince the woman and her son that they were the victims of fraud. A specific scheme spanning months, maybe years, that would eventually end with them losing their home.
“I showed the son there was a mortgage on the house,” says Lloyd in an interview with CollingwoodToday. “He argued there was no mortgage … that it was a fake.”
But it wasn’t fake. It was signed by his mom,…
