Police make arrests in grandparent scam that defrauded victims out of $739K
CTV
Ontario Provincial Police say they have 'disrupted' an organized crime group that allegedly used an emergency grandparent scam to defraud seniors across Canada out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Ontario Provincial Police say they have 'disrupted' an organized crime group that allegedly used an emergency grandparent scam to defraud seniors across Canada out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Details of the interprovincial investigation, dubbed Project Sharp, were announced at a news conference in Scarborough on Thursday morning.
Police said 56 charges have been laid against 14 suspects, who were all arrested in the Montreal area.
According to police, since January, investigators have identified 126 victims who were defrauded out of a total of $739,000. Fifteen of those victims were targeted on multiple occasions, police said, resulting in the loss of an additional $200,000.
The victims, who range in age from 46 to 95, resided across the country, police said, adding that the majority were from Ontario.
According to investigators, four of the 14 suspects remain in custody while the other 10 have been released on bail. The charges they face include involvement in organized crime groups, extortion, impersonating a police officer, and fraud, police said.
