Blind River grandparent saved from being scammed out of $10K

The 'emergency' scam has been circulating the region for years and earlier this week a grandparent in Blind River was targeted.

An unsuspecting grandparent received a phone call shortly after 10 a.m. on Jan. 23 from someone claiming to be a police officer, Ontario Provincial Police said in a news release.

The fraudster gave a name, badge number, phone number and said the person's grandson had been involved in a car accident and would be held in jail overnight unless $10,000 was paid for his release.

When the grandparent asked to speak to their grandson, they accidentally blurted out his name.

"The officer said the named grandson had contracted COVID, his voice had changed and hadn't returned to normal," police said.

"After speaking to the phoney grandson, another scammer came on the phone and set up a location to drop off the money at local courier service in the town of Garson."

The grandparent was instructed to put the money in a courier bag along with a magazine with cardboard and other papers in it.

"The complainant was also advised not to contact anybody and if they did, they could be in trouble for divulging this information," OPP said.

On their way to the Greater Sudbury community of Garson, the grandparent became suspicious and stopped at the OPP detachment on Highway 17 in Espanola.

They spoke to an officer who confirmed it was a scam.

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"Remember, any legitimate agency will never request a payment by wire transfer, online currency such as bitcoin, pre-paid credit cards or pre-paid gift cards such as Google Play, iTunes, Vanilla, etc," OPP said.

"Scammers will ask to purchase large denomination gift cards as form of payment. Also, they will ask to send cash, but hidden inside pages of a book, then box the book and wrap it in an excessive amount of packing tape."

More than a dozen victims have lost more than $19,000 to various scams in the district since the New Year began, the OPP East Algoma detachment said.

The scams include bitcoin, cryptocurrency, business and financial scams.

Tips to protect yourself from these types of scams:

• Upon receiving a phone call, email or text from someone claiming to be a family member in an emergency situation, contact them directly at the number you have for them
• Hang up and call police directly if someone claims to be a law enforcement official and asks you to pay a fine or bail
• Listen to your gut or inner voice if something doesn't sound right
• Be careful of the information you post online, scammers use social media accounts to gather details to help target you
• Be suspicious of phone calls that require immediate action or request money for a family member in distress
• Be aware scammers can disguise phone numbers to make it appear to be from a trusted source
• Use different strong and unique passwords for all social media and email accounts
• Don’t keep it a secret – Talk to someone you trust before making any decisions to send money to people you don't know
• Report all fraud or fraud attempts to police