No victims in Saskatoon after latest ‘grandparent scam’ ploy: Police

Saskatoon seniors are seemingly too smart for scammers.

According to Staff Sgt. Matthew Bradford of the Saskatoon Police Service’s economic crimes section, no one in Saskatoon has been victimized by the most-recent so-called “grandparent scam” going around.

Bradford said police have been told about a few incidents involving people in the city contacted by scammers who are trying to get cash for fake emergency situations involving people’s loved ones.

He credited public awareness campaigns and previous incidents for creating a heightened awareness of scams among people in Saskatoon.

“We just want people to know that this is happening again and we’re keeping a very close eye on it,” Bradford told guest host Gerald Bauman on Friday’s CKOM Morning Show.

The common threads between the various versions of the scam involve the emergency of a loved one, Bradford explained. Some of the most-recent stories presented to potential victims are that the loved one has hit a pregnant lady in another city or has been caught with a large amount of drugs.

In either instance, the person will say they need help in the form of bail money because they have been arrested and are in jail.

Scammers will ask a victim to withdraw cash and send it somewhere by courier or convert it into cryptocurrency.

“We’ve also seen where actual individuals will come to the victim’s house to retrieve the cash and that’s what concerns us the most,” Bradford said.

The scammers will often claim to be the loved one in question during the call, Bradford said. When questioned why their voice sounds different, scammers might claim they’ve been injured in a collision or the call might be intentionally muffled to make it hard to identify the person’s voice.

Bradford said the scammers then use “persuasive manipulation tactics” to convince the person they are calling to send money.

Any caller or person demanding cash is a huge red flag pointing towards a scam, Bradford said. He added that police, lawyers and people in government will not demand cash payments, especially for bail.

Any person asking someone to go to their bank, retrieve cash and then send it in a certain way or convert it to Bitcoin is also a sign the situation might be a scam.

If someone is worried a call might be real, Bradford recommended the person hang up and call their loved one directly to clarify whether or not the demand is legitimate.