An elderly New Hazelton couple saved themselves thousands of dollars by virtue of being skeptical.
On Jan. 27, the couple received a call from someone claiming to be a police officer who stated their grandson had been arrested and in order to release him from custody, a large sum of money was needed for bail.
Out of concern for their grandson, the couple did withdraw the money from their bank account, but rightfully decided to double check before they followed through on the instructions from the scammer.
They called the grandson and on discovering he was safe and sound at home, alerted the New Hazelton RCMP.
READ MORE: Smithers Detachment Weekly Police Blotter: Jan. 22 – 29
“It’s a familiar story to me,” said Sgt. Darren Durnin, New Hazelton detachment commander. “It’s a tactic used by well-practiced individuals to try to manipulate people.
Durnin did not know the exact amount of the attempted fraud, but said it was in the thousands of dollars.
Thankfully, they did their own checking or they would have been out of a lot of money,
Durnin said.
He added the RCMP never take money from anyone and anyone who receives any kind of suspicious call should immediately report it to police.
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