Fraudsters targeting seniors with lottery scam
By Nelson Daily Staff
If it’s too good to be true, when then it really is too good to be true.
Police on Vancouver Island are urging the public to be very cautious with their hard earned money and to not send money in order to win a prize.
On Friday May 11th, Sidney North Saanich RCMP were contacted by a 62-year-old Sidney resident who had received a call advising that he had won a multi million dollar prize.
The caller asked that almost two hundred dollars be sent immediately to the Head Accountant who was identified as a local Saanich resident in order that the prize could be delivered.
The man was immediately suspicious of the call and contacted the RCMP.
This is a common type of scam, Lottery fraud is an old crime. The call originated from Jamaica which has an area code of 876.
This is a huge problem emerging in Canada. The Jamaican callers can be very aggressive and are not adverse to using threats and harassment.
A common trick used is to describe the victim’s home via imagery available through Google Earth.
Anguished senior citizens who have no inkling of that computer technology are convinced they are being watched.
Senior citizens who have played the lottery for years want to believe that their pay day has come. The fact that the middle man was a Canadian gave the suggestion some legitimacy in their eyes. The callers are not initially asking for a lot of money but once money is received the calls keep coming.
The information gathered by the Sidney North Saanich RCMP investigation has been passed onto Jamaican authorities
. With the assistance of Saanich Police, the middle man was detained and later released and is co operating with the investigation
