Belleville police responded to 66 calls for service over a 24-hour period between 5 a.m. on May 2, 2022 to 5 a.m. on May 3, 2022.
Fraud Alert
Belleville police are warning elderly citizens of a new scam circulating the area. Belleville police have responded to several calls in the last few days, in some cases with unsuspecting victims turning over thousands of dollars to fraudsters. The scam involves a phone call claiming to be the victim’s grandson who has been arrested and requires money to be bailed out of jail. The victim is then provided with a phone number to a phony lawyer who states they need a cash deposit for as much as $10,000 to get the grandson out of jail. The unknown victim retrieves the cash and advises the lawyer. The new twist in this scam is that the phony lawyer tells the victim that a bail bondsman will be attending the victim’s residence at an arranged time to pick up the money. In these recent incidents, an unknown suspect appears in person at the victim’s home, claiming to be the bail bondsman, and the victim turns over the cash. The fraudsters are persuasive and may know specific details about the victim. People are being reminded to question things if unknown people are asking them to turn over large sums of money. There is currently no commercial business of bail bondsman or bail insurance system in Canada.
This article was originally sourced by www.quintenews.com.
