Police Warn Of New Phone Scam

(BRUCE PENINSULA, ON) On February 10, 2014, the Bruce Peninsula Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) received a report from a resident in the Town of Wiarton of an attempted telephone scam. The resident was contacted by a man impersonating a lawyer, stating he was representing the resident’s son, who had supposedly been arrested for impaired driving in Montreal and needed her to send $1,900 immediatley through Western Union for him to make bail.

The caller then took the scam up a notch by handing the phone to a ‘male’, who stated he was the resident’s son and that he sounded different because he had broken his nose in a motor vehicle collision.

The resident advised the caller that she had no means of obtaining a money order, and the call was ended abruptly. No money was sent and the resident spoke to her son, who was not in Montreal and had not been arrested.

Technology provides scammers with both an unlimited supply of information and the resources to create these scams. In an effort to gain your trust, tech savvy con artists can forge documents to appear as if they’ve come from a government agency, bank or other established company with which you are most likely familiar. They can also learn about you and your community from an online search before they try to contact you.

There is no limit to the schemes a con artist will utilize to separate you from your hard earned money. Fraud continues to be a multibillion dollar per year enterprise, and this will only end when the scammers stop making money.

Anyone interested in more information on Fraud can contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1 888 495 8501 or check online at http://www.antifraudcentre.ca.

The Bruce Peninsula OPP is requesting that anyone with information that can assist police call 1-888-310-1122. Should you wish to remain anonymous, you can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or send a web-tip to crimestop-gb.org; you may be eligible to receive a cash reward of up to $2,000.

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