A Calgary scammer is warning others after fraudsters tried and failed to scam him out of thousands of dollars.
Michael O’Reilly received a call a few weeks ago from a young man posing as his cousin. “Hi. Do you know who this is?” the caller asked him. “Don’t you know me, Uncle Mike?”
The caller said he was O’Reilly’s cousin, Patrick, and then told what has become a common con story of woe.
“I was in a car accident and I broke my nose and that’s why you don’t recognize my voice,” the caller said. ‘But I’m in jail and I need some money. I only have to pay $6,000 to be released. So I just called to see if you could help me in some way?
Michael O’Reilly plays a recording of a scam call.
Global Calgary
O’Reilly said he became suspicious and that’s when he started recording the conversation. He also began pressuring the caller about why he was calling him – and not his cousin’s immediate family.
“I would be embarrassed to talk to my family,” the caller told him.
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But O’Reilly didn’t stop repeatedly mentioning the name “Tom,” Patrick’s “real” father.
The scammer then asked for Tom’s number. “You should fucking know your father’s number by heart. What’s wrong with you?’” O’Reilly said.
The scammer then hung up, as did O’Reilly, and although he said he knew it was a scam all along, he says the caller was very convincing.
“It sounded a lot like (my cousin),” he added. ‘Probably with a broken nose, but it sounded a lot like him. He played along with me very well, I thought.”
Scams among seniors are on the rise
Scams by grandparents or ‘loved ones’ have been defrauding seniors of a lot of money for years. According to the Calgary PoliceSince January, about 32 incidents involving elderly victims being targeted and robbed of money have been reported to police.
Of these, 21 incidents involved loss of money. In total, the amount defrauded so far is approximately $180,250.
CPS said that in nine incidents no money was lost because victims realized they were being scammed or the scam was interrupted.
Professor and cybersecurity expert Dr. Ryan Henry of the University of Calgary told Global News that the increase in technological advancements has made things a lot easier for scammers – especially when it comes to impersonating someone.
“Voice-imitating technologies have come a long way,” he noted.
Henry said artificial intelligence (AI) can mimic someone’s voice, making people think they are talking to the “real” person.
“Don’t try to determine whether you’re talking to AI in real time,” he advised. “Always act defensively. Try to find a way to verify this before you actually take action that could come back to bite you. Even if you are convinced that you are talking to your cousin and he really needs help, insist that you call him back on his phone. If you talk to a scammer pretending to be him, they can’t answer his phone.”
Henry also suggested that people ask specific questions to which fraudsters cannot easily guess the answers.
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