A Nanaimo couple managed to avoid getting scammed out of $2,500 after a late-night phone call from their "son" turned out to be fraudulent. (Dreamstime)

By NanaimoNewsNOW staff

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NANAIMO — Scammers were no match for a Nanaimo couple after they were woken up to a frantic phone call.

Known as the “Grandson scam”, the couple in their 60s received a call around 2 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13, with the person on the other end crying and sounding exactly like their adult son in serious distress.

RCMP Res. Cst. Gary O’Brien said the late-night phone call and the frantic tone of their “son’s” voice are the scammer’s way of getting a potential victim emotionally invested right away.

“He (the son) stops talking, and this “Sgt. Scott” gets on, and he’s the scammer. He’s playing a police officer in Quebec. He reports that their son had been driving and texting, and in doing so, he hit a one-year-old person, and he’s been arrested, and he’s being held at “the courthouse”. They’re not quite sure where that is.”

O’Brien said the conversation went on for a bit, with the couple not quite ready to dismiss it because they heard what they thought was their son’s voice, when in fact it was the scammers using artificial intelligence to replicate it.

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O’Brien said once “Sgt. Scott” asked the couple to e-transfer him $2,500 to secure their son’s release, that’s when it became clear it was a scam, and they hung up and phoned police.

“They’re using all these techniques, they’re tugging at your heartstrings, but you have to be responsible. Slow down, think about what’s happening, and put it all into perspective, and that’s exactly what they did.”

However, that wasn’t the end of their night, as they were unable to reach their real son after they hung up on the scammer.

So, the couple got in their car and drove a short distance away to their son’s house, and found him safe and sound at home.

Having a family password or verbal code is one way families can protect themselves, said O’Brien, but if an unknown phone caller is asking you for money, either in the form of an e-transfer, gift cards, or bitcoin, that’s an immediate and obvious red flag.

“If anybody asks you for money over the phone, anybody asks you to send money via an e-transfer, and you don’t know who these people are, it’s a scam, but still do these checks for peace of mind.”

Mid-Island residents are unfortunately all too familiar with this type of scam.

In early 2024, nine complaints about the grandson scam were reported in a single day to the Nanaimo RCMP in a two-hour period.

Last February in Oceanside, a parent lost $32,000 after scammers pretended to be their daughter, saying they were in jail and needed immediate help.

A week prior to that incident a Nanaimo mother lost $1,800 when scammers again impersonated their daughter, who was travelling and needed help.

In January, a Nanaimo woman lost $4,000 after she was scammed over text message into thinking she was sending money to her out-of-province son.

This scam was reported in Nanaimo as early as 2020, where a local grandmother lost $14,000 over the course of nine days after scammers once again pretended to be their grandson, who was in jail and needed immediate help.

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