He accepted a fake job offer. Police believe it roped him into a grandparent scam
CBC
A day after two elderly Vancouver Island women told RCMP they had been scammed for thousands of dollars, a man walked into the detachment saying he took their money during his delivery work and was unsure if what he was doing was legal.
B.C.’s Director of Civil Forfeiture argues it was not.
As CBC News has learned from court documents and speaking to police and experts, the elderly women and the man who handled their money may all be victims of two prevalent fraud issues in Canada: grandparent scams and bogus job offers.
The documents allege the man accepted an unsolicited job offer that led to him serving as a go-between in the grandparent scam.
The Director — who is empowered to seize property linked to crime even if its owners haven't been convicted — filed a civil claim this month to take a bank account and $7,500 believed to be connected to fraud.
Filings allege that in all, the courier handled about $30,000, likely from grandparent scams. No one has been charged criminally and none of the allegations have been proven in court.
Jeff Horncastle, who speaks for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, says the court filings illustrate how fraudsters may trick “money mules” into their schemes as a way of distancing themselves from illegal acts.
“Basically, they're hiding behind layers of people,” Horncastle said. “Whether it’s bank accounts, transfers, [it serves] to make investigations, at the end of the day, more difficult for law enforcement.”
Stats from the Anti-Fraud Centre show job scams are growing in Canada. In 2022, 1,759 victims reported losing over $7 million to these grifts. In 2024, 2,389 victims lost over $48 million.
Grandparent scams — classified as "emergency scams" by the Anti-Fraud Centre — despite dropping in victim count and dollar losses over the same time frame, still cost 561 people over $3 million in 2024.
According to a West Shore Mountie’s affidavit and a police report included with the Director’s filings, a Langford, B.C., woman phoned RCMP on Nov. 13 to report being scammed.
She said a man claiming to be her grandson called her saying he was in jail.
She then got a call from a man claiming to be the grandson’s attorney, the report continued, who explained his courier would come to her home for $7,200 to pay legal fees.
Both calls were phony.
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