Guilty pleas in ‘grandparent scam’ expose prolific fraud network targeting seniors

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A multi-agency police wiretap investigation that culminated in the arrests of 14 people in the Montreal area in April, 2024 uncovered an organized fraud “syndicate” that targeted seniors across Canada in a sophisticated “grandparent scam.”

Three men have already pleaded guilty to playing their roles in the fraud network, which defrauded dozens of seniors of $1.2 million in a three-month period alone in early 2024.

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The police investigation intensified to wiretaps and surveillance teams during that period, between Jan. 27 and the arrests on April 10, as police watched and recorded the fraudsters placing hundreds of calls daily from “call centres” — often rented Airbnb units — targeting seniors with landlines.

The scammers duped their victims into believing the caller was a grandson or nephew in legal peril and in immediate need of cash.

Documents filed in court to support the guilty pleas illustrate the scale and scope of the lucrative and prolific fraud cell, which could have been raking in around $5 million per year, according to estimates from police and prosecutors.

One elderly couple in Kingston was victimized by the scam in February 2024 and was nearly tricked into handing over $10,000 in a shoe box to the fraudsters, who had sent an unwitting taxi driver to collect the cash.

Members of one Montreal call centre defrauded three separate victims of more than $23,000 in a single day of calls on Jan. 30, according to a lengthy outline of the case filed in court by Crown attorney François Dulude.

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The police investigation, dubbed Project Sharp, was led by the Ontario Provincial Police and involved officers from 11 police services across Ontario and Quebec, including the Ottawa Police Service.

Investigators identified 23 different call centres in Montreal, Laval and Toronto. Police laid 56 total charges in April against 13 men and one woman ranging in age from 24 to 33, most of them residing in the Montreal area.

During the height of the wiretap investigation from January to April, police identified 126 victims who had lost $739,810. Police were able to disrupt a further $500,000 the suspects attempted to take from victims during the same three-month period.

Investigators identified 269 total victims since the investigation launched in September 2022. Many of the victims were targeted in Ontario in the 613 area code, and the criminal cases are proceeding at the Ottawa courthouse.

One of the victims, an elderly man from St. Catharines, drove to Ottawa to attend court in person. He told the judge he still hadn’t let anyone know that he had fallen victim to a scam because he didn’t want to “lose credibility” in the eyes of his family.

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Another woman told the court she has suffered since the scam from anxiety and tears, she remains afraid of answering unknown calls on the phone, suspicious of her financial transactions and “unsure of her own decision-making.”

Another victim told court she was “So very angry at myself that I allowed this to happen to me.”

Giordano De Luca, 25, from Laval, was the first member of the alleged scammer cell to plead guilty in October to a single count of fraud over $5,000.

He admitted to playing the role of “opener” in the scripted scam as he pretended to be the victim’s grandson calling from a police station after a car accident where drugs were found in the vehicle.

Openers would gain the confidence of their targets by claiming to be their “favourite grandson” or “the oldest one” and would trick their victims into giving up their relative’s real name.

A second fraudster would then join the call and play the role of “closer,” impersonating a police officer as they outlined the details of the bogus charge and arranged for collection of the cash, supposedly for bail money.

Damian Dufresne and Francesco Farinaccio Modaferri each pleaded guilty to a single count of fraud on Dec. 18.

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Modaferri, 27, from Laval, Que., admitted to playing the role of a closer on multiple calls. According to the Crown’s outline, Modaferri was first identified as a member of the cell when he was observed by police at a call centre in the fall of 2023. He used his own home as a call centre on occasion, according to the agreed statement of facts.

Modaferri also pleaded guilty to one count of impersonating a police officer.

Dufresne, 26, from Pierrefonds, Que., admitted to another role in the cell and was responsible for booking Airbnb rentals to be used as temporary call centres. He also admitted to running cash collected from victims in Ontario back to his bosses in Laval and Montreal.

He was first identified as a suspect in October 2023 when police observed him at Modaferri’s residence, which was being used at the time as a call centre.

The three men were initially charged with offences related to participating in organized crime, but those charges were withdrawn as part of their guilty pleas.

The fraud was “carried out in a highly organized fashion by a criminal organization,” the Crown has alleged, though Dulude said the three were not considered “higher-ups” in the organization.

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Prosecutors filed a detailed chronology of the fraud cell to support the guilty pleas, including transcripts of numerous scam calls.

On Feb. 6, Dufresne was intercepted on a phone call with one of his superiors discussing a scam in progress that had become complicated by the arrival of two concerned neighbours.

The fraudsters had convinced an elderly couple in Kingston to withdraw $10,000 in cash from their bank, but complications arose in collecting the money once the neighbours arrived at the couple’s home.

One of the scammers told the couple to place the cash in a shoe box, then called a taxi to pick up the package and deliver it to another address in Kingston.

Dufresne was instructed to follow the taxi in his car and “his guy” would pick up the shoe box. The scam was disrupted when the couple declined to hand over the cash and instead went to Kingston police.

In another fraud on Jan. 30, a 70-year-old Kanata woman was defrauded of $9,765 over the course of 25 phone calls on the same day. The following day, surveillance teams tracked Modaferri and Dufresne as they departed Laval bound for Ottawa.

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Another surveillance team was put in place at the victim’s home and they watched as a courier arrived and picked up the cash. Modaferri and Dufresne were then seen attending the same area where the courier had been seen after picking up the victim’s money.

They then had dinner in Ottawa and drove back to Montreal.

Dufresne was also involved in booking rental units for the scammers to operate as call centres.

The fraud cell spent one week at a rented unit on Rue Emery in downtown Montreal, where they pulled off three successful scams in a single day in late January and defrauded three victims of $23,000.

They scammed another woman out of $8,450 a few days later and scammed an elderly man out of $5,500 on Feb. 6.

Police intercepted a call between Dufresne and one of his superiors, who was “scrambling” to vacate the rented unit and instructed Dufresne to find an alternative site.

The unit on Rue Emery, according to the caller, was “drawing heat” (the attention of police) because the unit next door had “crack and guns” and “nobody wanted to go back,” according to the transcripts.

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Dufresne then sent his credit card information to his contact to book another Airbnb.

Dufresne had “continued involvement through the spring of 2024 with this cell of the grandparent scam until his arrest on April 10, 2024,” according to the agreed facts.

“Intercepts show ongoing conversations on Dufresne’s personal cellphone and other members of the cell discussing pickup of funds, travel into Ontario, and the manner in which members of the cell make money.”

Prosecutors allege the 14 people arrested belonged to the same “cell” of a larger fraud network or “syndicate,” Dulude said.

The three cases that have now resolved with guilty pleas involve members who were considered “in the lower end of the organization.”

The Crown will be seeking prison sentences of between seven to 12 years for the alleged leaders. Those cases remain before the courts and the allegations have not been tested at trial.

De Luca and Modafferi are both awaiting their sentencing hearings, which are scheduled for the new year.

Dufresne was granted a 12-month conditional sentence on Dec. 18, which amounts to six months of house arrest followed by six months under curfew.

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The three men have no prior convictions.

Dufresne’s defence lawyer, Housep Dadaghalian, said his client is already “on the right path” to rehabilitation and his guilty plea avoided a potentially lengthy trial involving numerous victims.

Ontario Court Justice Michael Boyce warned Dufresne that if he violates any terms of his release, “The starting point is that you will serve every remaining day behind bars.”

Boyce called the scam “a serious betrayal” of trust and acknowledged the “devastating impact” on the victims and their families.

“The aggravating factors here are astonishing, the duration of time this scam unfolded, your role in it, the number of victims, the absolute devastation that was caused to so many people,” Boyce told Dufresne.

“You and your co-accused preyed on some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”

ahelmer@postmedia.com

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