Senior who gave $10,000 to pay bail for 'granddaughter' was researched on social media first: Vancouver police

A woman holds a cane in this undated stock photo. (Branimir76)

A Vancouver senior who is one of several in the area to be preyed on by scammers this month had been researched online by those who targeted her.

According to police in the city, it appears the fraudster or fraudsters spend time going through the 73-year-old grandmother's social media posts, learning specific details so they could target her specifically.

The woman was then approached with a call by someone pretending to be her granddaughter. The scammer told the victim she was in jail, and needed $10,000 to pay her bail, the Vancouver Police Department said in a news release earlier this week.

The woman targeted in this latest incident, on Jan. 21, is one of more than a dozen seniors who lost money to these scams in a period of just 10 days this month.

The first report was filed Jan. 11.

All of these seniors were told that a loved one had been arrested and needed bail money. Many turned over thousands of dollars as a result.

Due to the sudden uptick in this particular scam, police are asking banks and other financial institutions to watch out for seniors making unusually large withdrawals.

"People who work at banks play a critical role in fraud prevention," Const. Tania Visintin said in a statement.

"They often know their elderly clients by name, know their routines, and are sometimes the first people to realize when something doesn't seem right."

Anyone who has been the victim of this or other scams, or has information about them, is asked to call police.

In one recent case, a suspicious senior called police when their scammer got in touch again asking for money. Officers were waiting at the senior's home when the person on the phone came to pick up the cash.

That case was in Delta. Similar scams have been reported in West Vancouver, and police in New Westminster and North Vancouver have issued warnings to the public that they, too, may be targeted.

The North Vancouver RCMP also published tips for what seniors should do if they think they're being targeted, including who to call to report it.