Vancouver police say a scam victim who claimed she had been handcuffed and placed in the back of a car by fraudsters posing as RCMP officers made up the story out of embarrassment.
The Vancouver Police Department issued a warning Thursday that a 58-year-old woman had been defrauded of $6,000 and "arrested" by scammers posing as Canada Revenue Agency employees and police officers.
According to police, the scammers had phoned the victim and convinced her she owed a large sum of unpaid taxes. The victim told police two men then showed up to her location, took her to a Vancouver bank where she withdrew the money and then drove her to a Bitcoin machine in Surrey to deposit the funds.
But a day after police shared her story, they said they'd found out only some of it was true.
"We started to notice a couple of inconsistencies, and this morning we were able to confirm that at no point were any people dressed as police officers and made any contact with this woman whatsoever," Const. Jason Doucette said Friday.
"She was a victim of a CRA scam. I can confirm she did lose $6,000. That's completely true."
He said she did go to the bank and then the Bitcoin machine, but there were no fake Mounties with her.
Doucette said they aren't sure why her story changed. They're still working with her to determine why the story evolved and to investigate the crime that did occur.
"Emotions were probably running wild. She was likely a little bit embarrassed. We see people get embarrassed after they realize that they've been duped in these sort of scams," Doucette said.
"We are still treating this very seriously, we'd still like to hear from other people who feel like they've been the victim of a crime and not made a report to police."
Doucette said it's still too early to say whether the woman will face any charge.
He said officers want victims of crimes to know that it's OK to make mistakes, but to tell investigators the truth.
The VPD is warning the public that a legitimate call from the CRA would never include threats of arrest, police involvement or transactions in digital currencies such as Bitcoin or gift cards.
