Fraud-related offences are gaining ground on armed robbery and other crimes here and across the country.
Residents of Saanich appear to be the latest targets in a number of recent scams, including two reported Tuesday by people who said someone claiming to be from the government had contacted them.
Such scams are “an ongoing trend for at least the last year or two,” said Saanich police Sgt. Steve Eassie.
In both recent cases, the caller asked for information that would allow access to personal computers.
Neither person fell for it.
“I cannot reiterate enough that the government will never contact you at your home and ask you for your information to access your computer,” Eassie said. “That is not something that the government will do.”
He said comparisons between the number of fraud cases and other criminal offences is difficult because many fraud victims feel too embarrassed to come forward.
Fraud schemes such as the so-called “grandparent scam” recently perpetrated on a Saanich woman can yield big returns, Eassie said. Someone claiming to be the 73-year-old woman’s grandson phoned her and said he was in a Montreal police station after a car accident and needed about $5,000 to deal with legal issues.
The woman complied and transferred the money. After having second thoughts, she called police, Eassie said.
“She contacted her daughter and found out her grandson was, in fact, not in Montreal and he just returned home from work. So after stewing on it for a while and feeling quite embarrassed about it, she contacted us.”
Eassie said fraudsters can be very persistent.
“Even if they’ve got to try it 15 or 20 times, if they get one person to do this for them, they can end with $2,500 or $5,000.” That’s more than the small amount of cash taken in a recent armed robbery, Eassie said.
Those who commit such telephone fraud can be “extremely convincing,” taking in all sorts of people, Eassie said. A caller pretending to be a relative will sometimes feign having a cold to cover the unfamiliar tone of his or her voice.
A similar case was in the news last week, when a man dubbed the “Nephew Bandit” was arrested in Vancouver on a raft of charges, including fraud and robbery directed at the elderly across the country. One charge against him was laid in Victoria in March.
Eassie said Saanich police offer anti-fraud seminars around the community from time to time, particularly for seniors. These include a discussion of online scams, another type of fraud police hear about regularly. In Victoria, police get a complaint about Internet fraud almost every day.
The problem for local police is that often they can track the online perpetrators only so far, said Victoria police Const. Mike Russell. If the fraud originated in another country, it’s hard for police to pursue the case, he said.
“What we focus on is educating the public, and being aware of the common frauds that are out there,” Russell said.
A local woman in her 60s, who asked not be identified, said she is out $2,000 after striking up a friendship with a man who approached her on Facebook. She said their online correspondence developed into what appeared to be a whirlwind courtship and, after a time, she agreed to pay shipping charges for an “important” package for him.
Despite some hesitation, she made the payment and soon realized she had been had.
“They are so good at what they do,” she said of fraud artists. “They create urgency and they create trust, so that you feel that you have to do this to help them.”
She said the experience has inspired her to organize a public workshop on fraud concerns.
Russell touted the federal-government website for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, antifraudcentre.ca, as a source for basic information.
