Scammers from outside of Canada were able to convince a 90-year-old man from British Columbia that he was funding terrorism, and that the only way to avoid prosecution was to pay more than $200,000 – his entire life saving.
Within months of being contacted, Ron Jones had emptied out his bank accounts, taken out two mortgages on his small condo, and maxed out all of his credit cards in an effort to clear his name.
“It was so well planned and carried out I felt it was genuine,” Jones says. “I can honestly say I was scammed in such an evil way.”
Four years ago the New Westminster resident received an email from what he believed was a company offering to monitor and “clean” his computer of viruses for a monthly fee. About a year later he got a call that the monitoring company had gone out of business, and offered to refund the senior a portion of what he had paid for the service.
Jones said $1,300 was deposited into his bank account. Someone called a few days and told Jones too much money was accidentally deposited into his account and asked him to wire the excess $1,000 to an Indian address.
Two years later, Jones received another call, this time from someone claiming to be from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The man told Jones that he had sent $1,000 to an Indian terrorist group and the Indian government now had a warrant out for his arrest.
Read more at CBC News
