Phone scam targets Cape Breton senior

When it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Florence Hiscock lives in George's River, Cape Breton.

Since mid-February she's received three alarming phone calls. In each case, the caller in each case has told her she'd won $85,000 and a Mercedes.

"I figured it was a scam but he said it wasn't a scam," says Hiscock.

She says she chatted with the caller a bit longer, as she was curious about what they would tell her.

"But I wasn't going for it."

She says the man called himself John Mason. He asked if she had entered a contest at Shoppers Drug Mart — but he didn't specify which store.

He told her that to receive the prizes, she needed to pay $130 at a Western Union outlet. He even gave her a code to use to make the transaction.

Hiscock says she didn't believe a word of it.

"So I told him, why do I have to pay for a prize if I've won it? And he said it was gonna be delivered by courier," explains Hiscock.

"Well, I said, if it's not a scam it's crooked then, they don't want to hear that."

She didn't send any money.  

Hiscock says once she started questioning what the caller was telling her, he became rude.

"But then it gets scary because they get nasty on the end because they don't want to hear what you're saying."

Hiscock says she called the Shoppers Drug Mart in North Sydney and they didn't know of any such contest.  

At the end of the third call, Hiscock says she hung up on them. She says people need to know that there are individuals trying to do this over the phone.  

"Because it sounds really good — $85,000 and a Mercedes, that sounds really good — to anybody, you know? Then when the $130 came in it didn't sound so good."

She says she hasn't called the police yet, but if the calls persist, then she will. "But I just wanted to get the word out, so other seniors wouldn't be a target."