OPP speak out over influx in scam calls

The so-called “grandparent scam” is getting under the skin of local enforcement agencies like the OPP.

“I guess the best way you could put it is we're annoyed, says OPP Const. Steven Duguay.

A day after the Windsor Police Service warned of a rise in scam phone calls, OPP received an overwhelming number of reports of the same crime.

“We've had phone calls and walk-ins. Walk-ins in Leamington, I think we had upwards of six people come in and complain the same thing,” says Duguay, who adds Kingsville and Lakeshore OPP detachments also experienced an uptick.

The scammers all have the same game: trying to take your money.

“They're always using a member of the family that's in trouble,” explains Duguay. “They've been arrested or injured and they need help and need money to get out of the jam that they're in.”

Barb Morris received a call asking for bail money after her son was supposedly arrested by Toronto police.

“I hung up right away,” she says, explaining that she then called Toronto police who confirmed the call was a scam. “I was so happy that I didn't go with my first, 'Oh no I need to help my son' because I would have fallen for it.”

There are a variety of other scams to keep an eye out for. Dorothy Edmondson received two different calls on Tuesday alone.

“'Hi, this is so and so from Visa.' I just hang up and don't tell them anything,” she says, explaining that she doesn’t own a Visa card. “I also got a call from Amazon telling me my account was gonna be [shut down] and I don’t have Amazon either.”

Deborah Coleman says she receives a call about every two weeks for one scam or another. One of those calls recently centered around a suspected fraud attempt on her credit card.

“And I said, ‘Ok I'll call Visa and check with them. ‘No, no you can't do that,' so I said, ‘Ok, well goodbye.’”

She, like many, are tired of the calls.

“I run to the phone and I may be doing something else and it's annoying to get a stupid call like that,” says Edmondson.

“It frustrates me to no end” adds Morris. “They don't have a conscience. They're looking for easy money off people who don't have very much.”

The recent influx of scam calls has raised a red flag for officials at Life Over 50 who are hoping to offer an information session in the near future.

“Since COVID we really haven't had an information session on phone scams, so it's time,” says Lynn Calder, executive director of Life Over 50.