A Nanaimo woman who thought she was texting with her son ended up paying $4,000 to a scammer, Nanaimo RCMP say.
It started with a real text conversation between the woman and her son, who lives out of province, police said.
When the woman got another text from an unknown number a short time later, she assumed it was from her son —but it was actually a scammer.
Police said the text came from Quebec number 1-581-702-0162.
The message began with: “I’m stressed, can you help pay some bills for me,” police said.
The woman asked the person impersonating her son why the number was different, and was told there were problems with his phone and he had to get a new one.
“Over the course of several texts, the scammer provided an email for an individual by the name of Peter Olah and a business name of Simple Wealth,” police said. “The woman was instructed to send two e-transfers, one to be directed to [email protected]. The two e-transfers totaled approximately $4,000.”
After receiving another text from the scammer the next day, she contacted her son on the original number and realized she had been taken in.
“This scam could happen to anyone,” said Reserve Const. Gary O’Brien. “The best course of action is to always slow down, give it some thought, use Google services to assist if necessary and always verify who you are communicating before making any financial decisions.”
The woman was reimbursed close to $2,000 by her bank.
For more about current frauds and scams, visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre website at https://antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/index-eng.htm
