The scams just never end.
If we didn’t have enough to worry about with war in Europe, a global pandemic, atmospheric rivers and heat domes, making sure our vulnerable elders don’t get fleeced out of their life savings is a problem that won’t go away, and seems to be getting worse.
I received an email last week from a man who said his wife has been duped out of sending between $5,000 and $10,000 to someone claiming to be Henry Cavill (famous British actor) on WhatsApp. The woman suffers from a mental illness.
“We came to B.C. for our retirement in August 2020 and this has been our biggest nightmare ever since,” he wrote via email.
Tell anyone in law enforcement about this and, sadly, they will not be surprised. Search “scam” on The Chilliwack Progress website and there is a long list of stories, diverse in nature. The first five hits: job scam, online shopping scam, rental scam, tax scam, Visa scam, CRA scam.
The RCMP in B.C. issued a press release on Tuesday on the topic of how scams and frauds continue to plague vulnerable populations.
Four specific scams got attention: the “emergency” scam; the “social insurance number” scam; the “romance” scam; and the “extortion” scam.
“These are but a few variations on a common theme persistently targeting the elderly and other vulnerable populations such as immigrants and those for whom English is not their first language.”
“We continue to repeat our warnings, but we don’t mind being a…
