Seniors’ group says to take a deep breath and ask for a call-back number first
Daphne Nahmiash knows from personal experience that con artists bet that their victims won’t stop to think about what might be going on.
People pretending to be someone else have called her and asked for money. She also says that some of her friends have been taken in by these sophisticated scams that target the elderly.
The person who fights for the rights of seniors says that rational thinking fails when it comes to the well-being of their family.
“You’re not really so logical,” she told him. “When people are calling you, you can’t really stop and think straight.”
One of these is the so-called “grandparent scam,” in which an older person gets a call or text message saying that a loved one needs money right away. They act like a police officer, a lawyer, or even a younger member of their own family.
As the number of these kinds of scams goes up, police and fraud-prevention experts are making more tools to help seniors spot them and get over any shame they might feel about reporting the crime.
WATCH | What to do if you get a call demanding payment:
Montreal police say fraudsters have become more sophisticated in recent years.
And Clive Olivier, an agent with the police service’s fraud department, says these people usually pressure potential victims to act quickly.
He says callers sometimes claim that accounts have already been compromised — and ask for a person’s credit card number to cancel the card, or for verification purposes.
Olivier says a fraudster might send someone else to pick up the card from the victim while they’re still on the call. Or the scammer might even drive the victim to their bank so that they withdraw cash, instructing them what to say at the branch.
He says seniors are especially vulnerable to these scams.
“We saw an increase in 2022. It more than doubled compared to the cases in 2021,” he said, adding they’re seeing similar numbers so far this year.
Data from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre shows that the amount of money lost in Quebec has grown in recent years.
“If the fraudulent call is recent, we’ll try to get information,” said Olivier. “We will warn them if they call them back to call us immediately.… And we can get involved to try to catch them.”
He encourages victims to report the crime to police. But Nahmiash says many are hesitant to do so — even after losing the savings they’re depending on to live.
“It’s embarrassing to think it happened to you,” she said. “You do feel ashamed and feel terrible that you weren’t smart enough to say no or prevent it.”
Creating resource
The Cummings Centre is working to raise awareness about these schemes.
The non-profit organization that serves seniors in western Montreal has been getting requests from members for tools to spot the grandparent scam.
Since 2021, they’ve held seminars on grandparent scams and other misleading calls.
Linda Shohet, member of the centre’s social action committee, says their first virtual session had an “overwhelming” response, where nearly 700 people logged on.
Shohet wants people to know that they aren’t alone and scams could happen to anyone.
“Our main goal is to inform people,” she said. They want people to know what kinds of scams are out there, and “signals [to] look for and hear that say step back, hang up and ask questions.”
The centre is now developing seminars for the fall, based on demand and the most pressing concerns from its members.