‘Grandparent scam’ targets woman in Prince Albert

It was a typical morning for Pat Clark, 78, who was lying in bed with her partner when the phone rang.

She quickly rolled over and grabbed the phone without checking the number.

“I went, ‘Hello,’ expecting it to be a telemarketer call, which I often get at that time of the morning,” she said. “The person said, ‘Hi Grandma.’ And it did sound like my grandson. He has a fairly distinctive speech pattern, and it sounded like him.”

But Clark would quickly realize it wasn’t her grandson, it was a scammer.

The scammer had an elaborate story about how he ended up in prison. He even asked Clark to put the phone on speaker so her partner Ken could hear too.

He said he was really sick with a 104 Fahrenheit fever, his friend took him to the hospital in his brother’s car, they were stopped by police and drugs were found in the car. He received one call so he phoned his grandma for help.

None of this was true.

“Then he says, ‘I need $8,000,’ and I’m going to say that probably made me just a little suspicious,” Clark said.

Clark said she isn’t an excitable person, and after about 30 seconds of talking with her “grandson,” she knew something was wrong.

She began asking the scammer questions and when he didn’t know the answer, the scammer hung up the phone.

She called her actual grandson — who was at work — to confirm the caller wasn’t him.

The same scammer called again, later in the afternoon.

‘This time I was up and I looked at the phone and it said unknown number,” she said.

“Both these calls were on my landline. I picked it up and said, ‘Hello,’ and it was the same voice. I went, ‘Oh, are you still in jail?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, in my most un-grandmotherly voice, ‘You could stay there,’ and then I hung up on him.”

Clark reported this to the Prince Albert Police Service who said another grandma received a very similar call.

She said the scammer knew a lot about her and her grandson.

“They certainly knew enough about things,” Clark said. “I was lucky they didn’t know his brother’s name.”

She was also shocked by the elaborate story the scammer came up with.

“He came up with a reason why a good, honest child would be in that circumstance,” Clark said.

“I’m sure some grandparents say, ‘Well, my grandson would never be into drugs.’ But he had a story as to why I’m completely innocent, but I’m still here.”

Luckily for the old psych nurse, she pieced the puzzles of the elaborate story together and knew something didn’t add up. If he really had a fever that high, he wouldn’t sound so healthy.

Clark is located in Prince Albert, where two people were recently arrested and charged in connection with a fraud case.

But there have also been advisories in Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw.

The RM of Edenwold, a village 45km north of Regina, is also warning citizens about scams in the area as well.

Karlie McGeough, Social Media Officer with the Regina Police Service (RPS) said there are warning signs to be aware of.

“Typically what we see is a grandparent will receive a frantic phone call,” she said.

“Emergency scams typically prey on the fear of a loved one being hurt or in trouble. So scammers will claim to be someone they know and then they will say that they need money immediately for something. They will ask to provide money for bail, repairing a car, lawyer’s fees, hospital bills, really anything. And in some cases, we’ve seen fraudsters pose as police officers and the victims will actually provide their addresses to pick up bond money.”

She said police would never come to someone’s house to pick up bail money.

“Never give your address even if you’re a little bit suspicious,” McGeough said. “We just encourage people to contact police immediately, even if you don’t lose any money or you don’t give them kind of information, that’s something that could help somebody else and help us take these types of things off the streets.”

She said it’s important to reach out to your loved ones to let them know about these scams.

“Oftentimes they aren’t the ones that are checking social media,” she said. “So we do our best to reach out to care homes and to reach out to the elderly population. But something we really do encourage is for people to reach out to their loved ones and just kind of explain the dangers of these types of things and the common occurrences that can happen with these types of frauds.”

She said the RPS is currently investigating 24 fraud files for the month of September and a majority of them are mass marketing frauds — which is a fraud scheme using one of more mass communication methods like reaching people through the internet, phone, mail or even in person.