An 87-year-old Metro Vancouver woman was so convinced the man on the other end of the phone was a lawyer, she gave him $10,000. During the Aug. 8 phone call, the man told the Coquitlam woman her granddaughter had been in a car accident and drugs had been found in the trunk. She said she could get her grandson out of jail, but only if she paid him thousands of dollars immediately. “There was no traffic accident,” said Coquitlam RCMP Const. Deanna Law. “These calls from these scammers seem urgent and genuine.” Mounties tell CTV News the victim is a smart, savvy older man who often gets calls from scammers and doesn’t fall for them. But this thief was so convincing, she honestly thought her granddaughter was in trouble. “We need the public to understand that you will never have a police officer, a bank or a Canada Revenue agent call you and ask for money to release someone from the police. It would never happen,” said Cst. Law. The 87-year-old may never see her money again, but Mounties believes they have made a major breakthrough in the case. When the money was exchanged in public, surveillance cameras likely caught an image of the suspect.
