Alleged grandparent scammers lived in luxury. Their victims lost their savings and peace of mind

CBC News is investigating grandparent scams and their link to Montreal. This story is part two of a three-part series. Read part one here.

In 2020, months after the world shut down for COVID-19, Madeline, an American senior who had worked as a nurse all her life, got a phone call from someone from Montreal — though she didn't know that at the time.

It's unclear what the caller told Madeline, but her daughter, Janelle, recalled that it involved legal trouble. After the call, Madeline had a neighbour drive her to her local bank, where she told them she had to withdraw thousands of dollars — practically all her savings — to invest in her son's new business. 

It was a lie the person on the phone had told her to tell. 

The call was a scam — perpetrated, according to police and court documents, by a network of scammers operating out of Montreal. 

CBC recently published a story identifying the men suspected of being behind the scam. The network that targeted Madeline allegedly called thousands of other seniors between 2019 and March 2021, when police arrested its alleged members. 

But it is just one of several high-profile grandparent scam networks operating out of Montreal, according to police, at least two of which bore highly similar characteristics to one another and targeted primarily American seniors. 

These scams are seemingly lucrative for the scammers. For years, the network that allegedly targeted Madeline lived lives of luxury. The alleged leader of the group, David Anthony Di Rienzo, owned multiple cars, including four Mercedes and a Rolls-Royce Phantom — a nearly $600,000 car, according to a list of proposed admissions filed by the Crown that details some of the evidence against him. 

Meanwhile, the scammers allegedly drained the savings of seniors like Madeline, and, even in cases where the fraud was thwarted, left their victims feeling vulnerable and exposed. 

"It was very scary for her," Janelle said of her mother. 

CBC has agreed to only use her and her mother's first names because Janelle fears reprisals from speaking out against a group of alleged criminals.

Madeline, who was in her 80s, died about a year after the scammers targeted her. She was kind to the end, her daughter said. When her health deteriorated and she had to live in an assisted living facility, she would still offer up her blanket to any visitor who seemed cold. 

But the scammers used her kindness against her. Madeline was truthful by nature and, though she had heard of — and even been targeted by — similar scams, she couldn't imagine that someone would lie to her and try to steal from her in such a way. 

"She was someone who had always followed the letter of the law," Janelle said. "I think it doesn't ever occur to most of us to take advantage of someone or to lie or to scam them."