CORNWALL, Ontario – On Nov. 29, an elderly woman received a phone call telling her that she had won a prize and she needed to send money for the prize to be sent to her. The victim sent a bank draft for $1,750, to an address in Alberta using a local courier service.
On Nov. 30, the Cornwall Community Police Service received a call from a concerned employee at a local courier service who recognized the woman from the previous day. The woman had returned to the courier service with a large sum of money that she was intending to send to Toronto. The employee of the courier service believed that the woman may be the victim of fraud and as a result contacted the police to report the incident.
Police attended the business and spoke with an elderly female in her 80’s. She told the officer that she received several calls over the past few days from an individual claiming that she had won a new car and $12 million dollars. She was asked to send $10,000 in order to release the prize to her.
Police spoke with the woman and assured her that there was no prize and explained to her that she was the victim of a telephone scam. The officer escorted the woman back to her financial institution where her money was deposited back into her account. The officer also worked with the courier service to stop the delivery of the money order that was sent the previous day. The money order was returned to the courier and has since been returned to the woman who deposited into her bank account.
The woman was thankful for the actions of the employee at the courier service for contacting the police upon recognizing that she was the victim of a fraud. The woman was also thankful for the time that the officer took to explain the various signs of fraud and for helping her return her money to her bank account. The woman later told the officer that had she sent the money, she would not have had enough money in her account to make payments at the end of the month.
The Cornwall Community Police Service would like to remind the public to “slow things down. Talk with someone you trust and don’t become a victim.”
