Trusting targets
Seniors conned by man posing as CRA rep
Catherine Otterson froze as she listened to the man on the other end of the phone – she was to comply with his demands or face immediate arrest.
“I was crying, everything,” the Colchester County senior said. “I wasn’t thinking. It stunned me.”
The man claimed to be a representative of Canada Revenue Agency and demanded immediate payment of $500.
Her tears meant nothing. Nor was he bothered to learn Otterson was in ill health and would have to borrow the money.
“I said that I wasn’t a well lady. He said he knew that.”
Shaking, Otterson, 76, set off to borrow money to buy $500 worth of iTunes gift cards, as instructed.
“I went to MacQuarries (Pharmasave) for the cards and they asked me what for. I told them and they said it was a scam.”
Police told her the same thing. When the scammer called back to see if she had purchased the cards and found out she was wise to him, he hung up.
Otterson had been told her income tax return had been completed incorrectly and unless she dealt with it right away, she would be arrested.
He said after she purchased the gift cards someone would come to her home to pick them up. He also asked Otterson for details about her car, which left her believing she was being watched.
It was the same impression for beatrice Pratt of bible Hill, after she received a call from “Revenue Canada.”
Like Otterson, Pratt,
77, was told there had been a miscalculation on her tax return and unless she immediately came up with $1,000 to “clear her name,” she would be arrested and forced to settle the matter in court.
“Of course I was just bawling and I told them I don’t understand,” Pratt said.
The caller spoke with a foreign accent and said he would have his superior speak to her, at which point another man came on.
“He sounded just like a police officer,” she said. The man told her to calm down and he would explain. When her husband tried to interject by suggesting the call was a scam, the man told him to calm down or he could be arrested for insulting an officer.
Pratt was then given very specific instructions to take her cellphone and go to the nearest store where she could purchase “Steam” gift cards.
After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to find the cards, she was instructed to go to the nearest Needs convenience store to make the purchases.
Pratt did as told but while she was still in the store, the battery in her cellphone died.
At that point, she didn’t know what to do.
“I was scared to death. I was terrified,” she said. “I thought he was in the store watching me… I was scared that he might be out in the parking lot.”
Pratt returned home, however, and contacted a family member who convinced her the caller was a fraud.
Attempts are now being made to get her money returned. but at this point, she’s stuck with $1,000 in gift cards she has no use for.
“It was just like a nightmare,” Pratt said. “I just shook. The whole night long, walked the floor, bawled, everything.”
Otterson said she too has had difficulty sleeping, to the point she awoke one night feeling like someone was walking in her kitchen.
“An awful way to make a living, isn’t it?” she said. “I hope they get them and put them in jail for life.”