Some high-tech fraudsters have managed to bilk a Barrie family out of close to $15,000.
The incident occurred on Tuesday, March 12, confirmed Peter Leon, who works as the communications co-ordinator for Barrie Police Service.
“The wife got a call on her phone and it came up with her husband’s name and phone number on the call display,” he said. “The individual on the other end identified themselves as a translator for the police, that they had her husband in custody and that she has to pay $9,000 or he will be deported.”
In a panic, police say the woman collected the money, which she was instructed to deposit via a Bitcoin machine. Account and personal identification numbers were also provided so the deposits could be made to the Bitcoin machine.
The caller then threatened the woman with deportation if she didn’t come up with even more money.
Bitcoin, which takes regular currency and converts it into cryptocurrency, is very hard to trace, said Leon.
“This money is probably gone and never to be seen again," he said.
“She does what she believes is going to get her husband free, but as it turns out he is not in custody and she got spoofed,” Leon added. “The worst part is, it’s Fraud Prevention Month and (this) is another scam that has presented itself with a potential to impact a family that is here legally. They are threatening to deport them … this is very disturbing and it’s wrong.”
People work very hard for their money, he said, so seeing it end up in the hands of criminals is disheartening.
“Spoofing” a cellphone number is, unfortunately, pretty easy to do, noted Leon.
Whether the person knew the family is unknown, according to police.
“When you talk to people who understand how these phones work, apparently it’s not that difficult to make things appear on them the way that they do … if they have the know-how," said Leon.
Police are warning residents to be careful of scammers.
“If you hear words like deportation, arrest, Bitcoin machine or phrases similar to 'the caller is a translator for police,' then simply hang up. This lady feels terrible, obviously, but she was fearful that something horrible had happened to her husband,” Leon said. “When people play with the word deportation, it can cause people to do things that they wouldn’t normally do. They catch you off guard and are very convincing.”
Leon said if a person had actually been arrested, was in the custody of Barrie police and a call needed to be made to family, the officer would immediately identify themselves using their rank and last name.
“It would be a proper phone call. It wouldn’t be a translator calling for the police," he said. "It would be the police making the call. We don’t use translators to reach out to family members. Usually people are afforded the opportunity to make a phone call. If the person is unable to do so … then the police would reach out to family, but they would properly identify themself.”
