Public Safety Alert "Grandparent Scam" Seniors being scammed out of thousands of dollars

Toronto Police Service News Release

Public Safety Alert "Grandparent Scam" Seniors being scammed out of thousands of dollars

Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - 3:10 PM
53 Division:  416-808-5300

The Toronto Police Service would like to alert the public to recent fraudulent schemes targeting seniors, specifically those with grandchildren.

Officers have received several calls reporting:

- a grandparent receives a phone call from a person claiming to be his or her grandchild

- the caller says that he or she is in some kind of trouble and needs money sent immediately

- depending on the call, the caller may say that he or she has been in a car accident, is having trouble returning from a foreign country or has been arrested and needs money to post as bail

- the caller specifically requests that the grandparent not tell anyone else about the call on the premise that it would be embarrassing or otherwise create problems in the family

- the grandparent sends the money as instructed by the caller

- the instructions involve sending money via a commercial wire transfer service such as Western Union or Money Gram.

Police believe that the callers in these cases obtain critical identifying information from obituaries or social media. Armed with this information, the callers can be very persuasive.

Police are asking the public to share this with anyone they know who may be a grandparent in an effort to prevent further victimization of seniors in our community.

For more information on this and other scams please click here. Please also see our short video on this type of scam by clicking here.

Constable Sarah Diamond, Corporate Communications, for Detective Constable Roxanne Doyle, 53 Division