(MUNICIPALITY OF NORTH PERTH, ON) On Wednesday December 04, 2013, an elderly male contacted the Perth County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) to report a scam he had uncovered. He was also certain that he had out witted the scammers and made thousands of dollars.
Investigation by police into this reported scam revealed that within the past week the elderly male had received numerous telephone calls from two males trying to convince him he had won BIG. To disseminate the winnings a $200 money transfer was required. The elderly male wired the $200 by means of a money transfer company. Upon receiving the money, the callers explained that additional funds were required to facilitate the processing of the large prizes.
The elderly male told the callers he would need to see some cash as a sign of “good faithâ€. If this occurred he would send more money. The scammers through back and forth conversations explained that personal information was required to deposit such large amounts of money into his account. They obtained the male’s bank account number, bank password and his credit card information.
The scammers advised the male that they had deposited $6,000 into his account and told him to get an update of his bankbook. The male attended his bank and was pleasantly surprised to find $6,000 was deposited in his account.
The male was excited that he had “scammed the scammers†and that he was up $5,800 after deducting the initial $200 he had sent to Jamaica. The scammers contacted the male, pressuring him to transfer another $3,000 to them in Jamaica. The male advised police that he was going to keep the $6,000 and disregard any other calls from the scammers.
A Perth County OPP investigator attended the male’s financial institution and found out that the $6,000 placed in his account was simply a cash advance against his credit card arranged through telephone banking. It was also discovered that numerous rapid transactions were made throughout North America using the male’s credit card. A check with the credit card and money transferring companies revealed that they had flagged the suspicious transactions and were able to stop the majority of them.
This male was fortunate to only lose a small amount of money.