Police appeal for bail in wake of online rip-offs
Advertisement 2
Article content
Three Sarnia residents lost a total of more than $1 million in separate online scams reported recently, say city police.
The scams were the kinds of online frauds routinely reported, and each of the victims is more than 60 years old, police said as they urged area residents “to not engage in risky online behavior and to educate elderly relatives of these common schemes.”
A 67-year-old woman told police Sept. 24 she received a Facebook friend request from a man she didn’t know but who gained her trust over the course of a year and claimed to be a physician with Doctors Without Borders.
She came to believe they were engaged to be married, and the man eventually told her he needed money evacuate from a war zone but couldn’t access his own funds. Other stories followed and he eventually scammed the woman for more than $350,000.
Advertisement 3
Article content
In another case, a 63-year-old man contacted police Sept. 26 reporting he believed he had been scammed by someone claiming to be a woman who had reached out to him online.
They struck up a friendship and the man sent nude photos online and received nude photos in return, police said.
The man was then contacted online by someone claiming to be a “US Bureau Interpol” officer, threatening to arrest him for sending the nude photos.
The man was convinced to send money to avoid arrest. The person who first contacted him also convinced him to send money and the man sent a total of nearly $52,500 to the scammers, police said.
The third incident also came to light Sept 26 when police were called to a bank by staff where a man was trying to withdraw $130,000.
Advertisement 4
Article content
The man said he had received a phone call claiming he had won a $50-million prize but needed to send money to claim it. Police said the man had sent money over the course of a year and was also duped in a romance scam by the same fraudster and sent intimate photos and cash. In total, the man lost $710,000, police said.
“Losses of this magnitude are commonplace, especially with vulnerable seniors who are trusting and can be manipulated,” police said.
Scammers can be savvy and operate from different countries, making such frauds difficult to investigate, according to police.
Sarnia police dog tracks suspect in copper wire theft
Sarnia’s new police dog has helped make another arrest, tracking a suspect in a break-in at an electrical compound.
Advertisement 5
Article content
Police said in a news release officers were called out Friday to the compound in the city where an alarm went off.
An individual was spotted by the alarm monitoring company, but ran off when officers arrived.
Police service dog Vader and his handler were called in and successfully tracked a suspect found with tools and copper wiring.
Police said a 39-year-old Sarnia resident is charged with breaking and entering to commit an unspeakable offense.
Acting Deputy Chief Mike Van Sickle told the Sarnia police board last week the dog search team, which went into service in August, has been called out more than 20 times, “with a number of successes.”
The first was in early September when Vader tracked a suspect found hiding in a backyard beneath an overturned canoe.
“Certainly, it’s a valuable asset for our organization,” Van Sickle said.
Article content