Sunshine Coast RCMP are reminding residents to be vigilant as there may be scam artists at work on the phones.
Sechelt resident Pearl Hall, received a puzzling phone call in the afternoon on Tuesday, Jan 19 from a young man pretending to be a family member in trouble. The caller just referred to Hall as "grandma" and only referred to himself as "her favourite grandson."
Hall said she has several grandsons, all of whom are her favourite, but she continued the conversation.
"It sounds most like the oldest one so I said "Hi Tyler, where are you? He said "I'm in Calgary' He said 'I have to tell you, I'm in some trouble now Grandma.'"
Hall then started asking personal questions about why her grandson was in Calgary and what things he was doing there. The caller then hung up causing Hall to worry even more.
"If he wouldn't have hung up and he said 'grandma, I need plane fare home, I would have gone to the bank and wired him money," she said.
Hall's real grandson was in the middle of a hockey game in Ladner at the time. She said she is concerned scammers may be targeting seniors on the Coast.
RCMP Cpl. Murray McNeil said the incident sounded like many common scams where a caller pretends to be a relative in trouble then asks for money to be wired for plane or bus tickets.
He said the would-be scammers tend to get scared off when their victim starts asking too many personal questions, adding never give personal information over the phone.
"I would advise them not to divulge any personal information, of course, because complaints come from people who have given names or e-mails or phone numbers or in some cases, banking information which we advise they never do," he said.
McNeil said natural disasters like the recent earthquake in Haiti also tend to bring out opportunists, looking to exploit people by asking for donations over the phone.
"I don't know of any legitimate charities that are going to ask people to wire money," he said.
McNeil said if anyone suspects they have been targeted for a phone scam, to contact the Sunshine Coast RCMP detachment at 604-885-2266 so RCMP can begin an investigation.
