Senior who lost $17,500 warns of ‘RCMP investigator’ scam

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Eighty-one-year-old Joan Smith thought she was doing her civic duty when she agreed to assist an RCMP officer in a fraud investigation.

In fact, Smith (not her real name) was acting as the puppet of a scam artist who had targeted her for victimization. The mistake would cost her much of her savings — $17,500 — and leave her deeply embarrassed and afraid.

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“I trusted him, I believed him,” she said in an interview. “It makes me think you can’t answer the phone anymore.”

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Smith is telling her story now because she wants to warn other seniors not to make her same mistakes, and to encourage banks and businesses to be more zealous in protecting seniors against those who would take advantage of them.

This newspaper has agreed not to identify her because of her fear of being targeted again by fraudsters.

Smith’s ordeal began one week before Christmas, when she received a phone call from someone purporting to be from Amazon, asking if she had purchased a new iPhone. Smith said she had made no such purchase. The caller asked if she wanted to speak to someone from the RCMP about the issue, and Smith said, ‘Yes.’

Smith hung up and soon received another phone call; her call display said it emanated from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

A man introduced himself as an RCMP investigator and gave his badge number. He said he was conducting an investigation into online scams and asked for Smith’s help in moving the case forward.

The handler asked her to buy gift cards and Bitcoin and to send him pictures of the purchases as part of an effort to locate the individual who had bought the iPhone on her Amazon account.

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She agreed to help.

On Dec. 19, she went to her Scotiabank branch on Carling Avenue and withdrew $5,000 in $100 bills from her chequing account. The teller, alert to the possibility that Smith was being scammed, asked her what she planned to do with the money. Repeating what the “handler” had told her to say in case she was questioned at the bank, Smith said the money was to help her granddaughter buy a car.

She also made several withdrawals from a bank machine.

As instructed, Smith went to the Canadian Tire store on Carling Avenue to buy a series of $100 Apple gift cards. The cashier, however, refused to sell them to Smith and called her manager.

The store has a policy that requires a manager to approve gift card purchases of $300 or more.

Kevin Richard, manager of the Canadian Tire store, warned her to speak with a family member before buying any gift cards and told her he thought she was being defrauded.

“I was able to identify this situation as a scam as I have, unfortunately, seen a similar chain of events happen many times before,” Richard said in an interview.

Smith didn’t believe Richard and didn’t involve her family. “The RCMP officer told me I was not to breathe a word to anybody,” said Smith, a widow who lives alone.

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Instead, Smith told her handler what had happened, and he encouraged her to try the Shoppers Drug Mart nearby. There she succeeded in buying $4,000 worth of Apple gift cards.

Smith returned to her bank the next day and withdrew another $4,000; she also took out more money using a bank machine.

Smith bought Bitcoin from a Hasty Market on Merivale Avenue with her handler on the phone, coaching her through the transaction.

She went back to her bank again the following day and withdrew another $5,000, this time telling the bank teller she needed money for condo renovations. According to Scotiabank, the teller offered to supply a bank draft, but Smith declined.

Smith returned to Shoppers Drug Mart and bought another $4,100 worth of Apple gift cards. No one at the store questioned what she was doing. (A company spokesperson said store staff are trained to recognize fraud-driven gift card purchases while noting gift card fraud affects the entire retail industry.)

After Christmas, on Dec. 28, Smith cleaned out her savings account with a $2,600 cash withdrawal. She went to Giant Tiger and bought $2,500 in Apple gift cards over two days. (Giant Tiger said it could not offer information on the incident or on store policies aimed at identifying victims of fraud.)

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According to Smith, her handler kept pushing, saying, “We’re really close, Joan. Do you have any more savings we can use?”

On Jan. 2, Smith visited her bank to transfer money from her savings account to her chequing account, saying she needed another $4,500 for condo renovations. The teller, after reviewing her account activity, referred Smith to a more senior bank official, who asked Smith to show some proof of the renovations.

Smith, of course, didn’t have any and eventually explained she was assisting an RCMP investigation. The Scotiabank official told her she was being scammed and needed to file a fraud report.

Smith finally accepted the awful truth.

“I believed the bank,” she said.

Smith’s daughter, Anne, became involved and tried to cancel the gift cards: All but $100 had already been spent.

Anne Smith filed a police report and helped her mother file a request for reimbursement from Scotiabank for the $16,600 she withdrew during four face-to-face visits. She argued the bank failed in its duty of care to her mother.

“In my mind, they did not do due diligence,” she said.

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Scotiabank investigated the case and recently rejected Smith’s claim, noting bank employees appropriately questioned her withdrawals on three occasions and had no reason to doubt her answers.

It’s not unusual for clients to make large withdrawals to pay for renovations, the bank investigator said, noting Scotiabank cannot restrict seniors from banking as they see fit.

The loss of her savings meant Smith bounced a cheque for the first time in her life — to her church — and was forced to borrow money from her daughter when her washing machine broke down.

Anne Smith says banks and businesses need to put in place more protections — more bureaucratic steps — that seniors must take to make large withdrawals or buy Bitcoin or gift cards. She pointed to Canadian Tire as an example of how such transactions should be handled.

“In my mother’s mind, she was trying to be a good citizen,” Anne Smith said.

In 2021, the House of Commons justice committee issued a report on elder abuse that called on the government to consider changes to banking legislation that would better protect seniors against fraud and theft.

The Canadian Bankers Association has a code of conduct requiring participating banks to train employees to identify and escalate cases of suspected financial abuse and fraud involving seniors.

Andrew Duffy is a National Newspaper Award-winning reporter and long-form feature writer based in Ottawa. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe

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