A Guelph senior says if he could fall for a phone scam then it could happen to anyone.
Ron is a 71-year-old Guelph resident who said he fell victim to phone scammers in November. GuelphToday has agreed to only use his first name for this story to protect his identity.
With Ron’s consent, GuelphToday confirmed with Guelph Police that he filed a police report about the incident.
Ron said what happened to him is similar to another crime that was reported in a Guelph Police press release on Wednesday: a man called claiming he was working for the RCMP investigating a bank for fraud and needed his assistance.
“They called me up early in the morning with all of this information, told me who they were and they sounded so legit, the phone number looked legit on the phone. They knew exactly what to say,” said Ron. “I am still amazed that I got bamboozled, but I’m not the only one.”
Ron said he was recovering from some health issues and was under a lot of stress, which caused him to have his guard down when contacted by the scammers.
He said the scammers read out his access card number and the security code over to him over the phone.
“At that point I was convinced,” said Ron. “These guys had me convinced that I was working with the RCMP to catch someone within the (bank) branch.”
Convinced they were the real deal, Ron said he gave the scammers a code, not realizing it would allow them to access his bank account by phone app.
He said they then asked him to purchase gift cards, scratch off the back and tell them the code.
“They had me convinced they needed to create a virtual wallet to try and catch these people,” said Ron. “Why would I fall for the old gag of going out to buy Google Play cards? That’s the oldest trick in the book, right? But they said they needed some way of catching these guys internally in the branch.”
After he got back from the store and gave the codes to the scammers over the phone, Ron said he received a call from his real bank informing him of suspicious activity on his account.
“She said 'Ron, what’s going on? Your line of credit has been dinged for $11,000.' When I gave them the code to go into my bank account on my phone they then had access to my account, which is how they managed to deplete my line of credit,” said Ron.
He then cut up all of his cards and cancelled all of the transactions he could. Months later, Ron said he is still working with the bank to recover the money he lost.
Const. Kyle Grant of the Guelph Police Service said Thursday that people need to be very hesitant when they are contacted by someone they don’t know.
“The public needs to understand a police service will never contact them to help out with an investigation, asking them to purchase gift cards, sending money, anything like that,” said Grant.
“Unfortunately these frauds and scams are not going away. In my opinion, the best way to protect yourself is to trust your gut. When things don't feel right or it feels too good to be true, there’s generally a reason for that,” he added.
Anyone can fall victim to phone scams, said Grant.
“The people who are orchestrating these frauds and scams are very polished, very slick and practiced,” said Grant. “Just like anything else, the more you do something the better you get at it. These people become incredibly believable, incredibly articulate, they are very convincing when they are speaking to you.”
The Guelph Police Fraud Unit does receive a lot of reports of frauds and scams, said Grant, but often they go unreported because people feel embarrassed that they fell victim to them.
“No one likes being tricked, but this can happen to anyone so I would encourage anyone out there who has been the victim of a crime — whether it be fraud, a scam or anything else — to please come forward to the Guelph Police Service and we can try and help you out in any way we can,” he said.
Ron said the incident has completely changed the way he interacts with people over the phone.
“It’s 2020. From now on , I am not answering any questions from anybody I don’t know,” he said. “I thought I was smarter than these guys. Maybe under different circumstances, if I hadn’t been so stressed.”
