A person claiming to be a lawyer of their grandchild defrauded two Portage la Prairie-area seniors of cash in separate incidents, RCMP said in a news release Friday.
Portage RCMP received two reports of fraud earlier this week after the seniors said they received calls from a male who told them their grandchild, whom the suspect would name, was in jail and needed bail money.
In one case, the suspect came to the house of a Portage victim to retrieve the money while, in the other, a MacGregor victim met the suspect at another location.
Days earlier, calls of a similar nature were reported in Minnedosa and Kleefeld.
On Oct. 24, East St. Paul RCMP were made aware of an incident where a suspect picked up a victim and drove her to the bank to withdraw cash, believing her grandchild was in trouble. She lost a “significant amount of money,” police said.
Police aren’t sure if all the cases are related.
“The fact that they are showing up at homes and even driving with the victims speaks to their ever-increasing confidence in carrying out these scams,” Portage la Prairie RCMP Cst. Larry Neufeld said in the release.
RCMP warn the public to never give money to unknown individuals and if a family members calls asking for money in an emergency situation, hang up and call them back using a phone number previously saved.
RCMP asked if anyone has information about the crimes to contact the local RCMP detachment or Manitoba Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or manitobacrimestoppers.com.