‘We’re devastated’: Ontario seniors give away more than $1 million to scammers
By Pat Foran
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TORONTO (CTV Network) — Fraud and cybercrime cost Canadians more than $630 million last year, with many of the victims being seniors.
A couple in their seventies contacted CTV News to say what started with a “pop-up” warning on their computer screen led them to losing their life savings.
The Brantford, Ont. couple asked not to be identified as they are devastated after losing all their money in the scam.
They said it was in March of this year when they received a “warning” on their laptop, so they called the number on the screen.
“I couldn’t get rid of it. I tried control-alt-delete and it wouldn’t go away. It wouldn’t turn off,” said the woman.
When they called the number, they were told their accounts had been hacked and it appeared the man was involved in criminal activity.
“They said my SIN number had been compromised and was being used for money laundering by a criminal organization that was involved in child pornography, human trafficking, and drugs,” the man said.
For the next five months, criminals told them their bank accounts were in jeopardy and they needed to follow instructions to keep their money safe.
After two months of grooming the couple with daily calls claiming to be with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, the police, and Canada’s Treasury Department, the scammers started to tell them to start removing money from their accounts and giving it to them so they could keep it safe while the investigation progressed.
They were told to use their money to purchase gold bars and to put some in a bitcoin machine.
Couple lost $1,010,990 in scam
In the end, the couple purchased $900,000 in gold and $101,990 in bitcoin for a total loss of $1,010,990.
Despite warnings from their bank, they still went through with it.
“Our financial adviser warned us, she said this sort of sounds like fraud,” said the woman.
But instead of heeding that warning, the couple said they told their adviser they were buying the gold as an investment.
Eventually when they had no more money to give the scammers, the criminals cut off all contact with them. That’s when they realized they’d been duped.
“Oh, we’re devastated. It sounds very foolish that somebody would do something like this, but it was the trust that was built up over five months, which convinced us it must be legitimate,” the man said.
“Every day Canadians are losing their life savings,” Anthony Quinn, president of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP), told CTV News.
Quinn said he feels banks need to take additional steps to protect vulnerable seniors from scams.
The couple said they are now ruined financially and the chance of recovering any of the funds is almost zero.
“It was money that we invested over our lives. It was money that we inherited. It was money from the sale of our house. It was money we were going to leave our son,” said the man.
Sadly, the couple also cashed in their RRSPs so at tax time they’ll have a tax bill of more than $100,000, which they said they don’t know how they will pay.
Legitimate government agencies, police investigators, and banking officials will never ask to you to participate in an investigation like this or ask you to buy gold bars or put money in a bitcoin machine.
“Canadian banks should be doing more to set up an infrastructure to protect seniors so they don’t fall prey to these criminals,” Quinn said.
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