A police operation targeting fraudsters preying on the elderly led to the arrest of 21 people Wednesday in the Montreal area.Many of the suspects are to appear in court Thursday on charges of fraud over $5,000, possession of stolen property over $5,000 and conspiracy, said Montreal police captain Michel Leduc. Those arrested are suspected of having been involved in a fraud typically called a ‘grandparent’ scam. In this type of scam a person contacts a senior, posing as a nephew or a grandson who had a car accident while being intoxicated, and was arrested. The scammer then asks for money to be sent to him, to be used to avoid a criminal record. Then a different person, who pretends to be a lawyer, instructs the senior on how to send the money so the charges can be dropped. According to Leduc, the fraud’s total amount is estimated at $2.5 million since 2014, and involves at least 500 cases.
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