Why didn't credit union do more to help grandfather scammed out of $28.5K, family asks
Data shows 343 Ontarians lost over $3.1M to grandparent scams from January to August
Philip Ali, 88, got the call every grandparent fears.
His grandson had been arrested on drug charges and was in serious trouble with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
"He just got married. He's training to be a paramedic and he just passed his exam," Ali said.
With a criminal record, Ali said, "his chances of getting this job just became nil."
"This guy who is supposed to be my grandson is bawling his eyes out and crying and saying, 'Grandpa, Grandpa, would you help me? Grandpa?' And for the life of me, it sounds exactly like my grandson," said Ali, who lives in Ontario's Niagara Region.
Ali was unaware that he was falling for a popular over-the-phone scam, known as the grandparent scam or the emergency scam.
His grandson had not been arrested. He was not facing drug charges. It was all a con.
From Nov. 3 to 8, the fake police officers convinced Ali to make three large cash withdrawals from his financial institution, Meridian Credit Union, totalling $28,500.
They told Ali they would send a courier to pick up the cash and the courier would share a verbal password — "Code yellow" — to prove they were sent there by the court.
In less than a week, the scammers collected almost $30,000 in cash from Ali's front doorstep.
Jeff Horncastle, the client and communications officer for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), said grandparent scams like the one Ali was victim to are increasing across the province.
Data from the CAFC shows that in 2021, there were 240 reported grandparent scams in Ontario, with 92 victims losing a total of almost $650,000.
By August 2022, the centre received 700 reports of grandparent scams, with 343 victims together losing more than $3.1 million.
Family wants credit union held accountable
In Ali's case, his daughter, Karen Bull, discovered he was being scammed.
She said she wants to know why his financial institution, Meridian Credit Union, didn't do more to stop this from happening.
Bull said she and her sister were recently given power of attorney over her parents' joint account, from which Ali took the cash. Neither were alerted about the large withdrawals.
After she witnessed the "courier" make a pickup at her parents' house, Bull contacted police. The next day, she said she went to Meridian Credit Union and spoke to a manager.
"Why didn't somebody call me? This is very unusual behaviour for my dad," she said, adding she also asked why they didn't contact her mother, who was also on the account.
Meridian's senior public relations manager, Teresa Pagnutti, told CBC Hamilton, "Power of attorneys and joint account holders are able to review all account transactions," but tellers are "not required to notify other account holders or powers of attorney of transaction activity" if they are "able to transact on their own."
"They said, well, you know, your dad lied to us about what he was using the money for," Bull said.
The fake RCMP officers told Ali to lie about why he was taking out the money, he said. They had Ali withdraw the money from two different Meridian branches.
CBC Hamilton asked Scott Windsor, vice-president of corporate communications with Meridian Credit Union, if there are policies that help tellers identify elderly people who have been coached into lying about why they are making multiple large withdrawals from their account.
Windsor told CBC Hamilton that he was unable to share whether the credit union tracks large cash withdrawals taken from multiple branches.
"Unfortunately, in some instances, members may misrepresent the intended purpose of their transactions and be insistent to receive their money, even if warned about suspicious fraudulent or scam transactions," he said in an email.
Ali said he was not informed about grandparent scams by the tellers and was only asked questions about what he was spending the money on. First, he said he was buying a car. The second withdrawal, he said, was to fix the roof on his house.
Ali said the third time he withdrew money, he told the credit union he was taking out an inheritance for his grandson, and they asked him to sign a waiver that the institution was not responsible if he lost the two envelopes of hundred dollar bills he was given.
"They wanted to make sure that if I walked out that door and got hit on the head, and somebody took that money from me, that they were not responsible," he said.
Niagara Regional Police make arrest
Niagara Regional Police arrested a 22-year-old woman on Nov. 17, in connection with Ali's case. She was charged with fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by a crime over $5,000.
Police say the woman allegedly drove a grey 2006 Honda Civic to Ali's residence on three different occasions to pick up the $28,500 in increments.
Ali said none of the money has yet been returned.
Bull said her family is happy an arrest was made, but they feel vulnerable because the fraudsters know her father's phone number and home address.
"The police are maybe making some type of progress, but you know, from what I've been reading, this is a much bigger thing.
Niagara police say they are continuing to investigate, and they believe there may be more victims in the region.
"We are noticing a large increase in emergency-type scams," Horncastle, with the CAFC, said. "In the first eight months of 2022, there was $4.5 million lost in Canada."
Horncastle said if you receive a call from someone claiming to be a police officer, call your local police or RCMP detachment to confirm, even if the caller ID says the call is coming from a police phone number.
"Fraudsters have the ability to manipulate the phone number that shows up on your call display," he said. "Don't trust the number on your call display, always make the outgoing call."