'Embarrassed' woman duped by CRA scammers made up story of arrest by police impostors
Victim of scam falsely claimed she was handcuffed by men dressed as officers and thrown in a car
Vancouver police say a woman who fell victim to a Canada Revenue Agency scam and claimed she was handcuffed and put in a car by two men posing as officers greatly "exaggerated" her story.
"At no point were there any people dressed as police officers and there were no handcuffs involved. She was never arrested," said Const. Jason Doucette.
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VPD?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VPD</a> investigators have discovered that the CRA scam warning released yesterday was exaggerated by the victim. She did receive a phone call and was scammed out of $6000, but at no time was she physically approached by people claiming to be police officers. <a href="https://t.co/LVxEf4HMVb">https://t.co/LVxEf4HMVb</a>
—@VancouverPDThe 58-year-old woman was defrauded of $6,000 after receiving a phone call from someone claiming she owed back taxes to the CRA.
Victim embarrassed she was duped
However, a team of investigators from the Vancouver police major crime division determined that at no time was the woman physically approached by the scammers.
"Detectives confirmed this morning that the victim was embarrassed for falling for the scam and panicked, deciding to exaggerate her story to include fake police," said Doucette.
"Our investigators are now able to slow things down, put people's minds at ease that there's no one going around dressed up as police officers trying to take advantage of them."
On Thursday, the Vancouver police held a news conference to issue a public warning about the alleged impostors.
"We did the right thing," said Doucette. "We went public with the story out of an abundance of caution. We had no reason not to believe her."
Police did not say how they determined the woman's story was false, or whether she could be facing a mischief charge.