A call from a grandchild in trouble

Regina, Saskatchewan · December 2025

The voice was her granddaughter’s. The call was not.

Lost nothing

On a Tuesday afternoon, Jill’s phone rang. Her granddaughter was crying. She had rear-ended a car, the other driver was in hospital, and she had been arrested. Bail was $6,875.

“I will swear to my dying death that it was her voice.”

A police officer came on the line, then a lawyer, “Mr. Williams”. He told her to take the money out in cash, tell the bank it was for a contractor, and leave it in a box on her front step for a courier.

She took out $7,000. At home, she and her husband saw that nobody had mentioned a receipt. Jill looked up a lawyer named Williams and called him. He had never heard of her. “No lawyer would ask you to do that,” he said, and told her to call the police.

CBC News, 12 December 2025. “‘That was my granddaughter’s voice’: Senior suspects scammers used AI in Regina, Saskatoon”

Niagara Region, Ontario · November 2022

He told the bank it was for a car. Then a roof. Then an inheritance.

Lost $28,500

Philip, 88, said the voice sounded exactly like his grandson, who had just married and was training to be a paramedic. Now, the callers said, he faced drug and weapons charges, and a record would end that career.

“Grandpa, Grandpa, would you help me?”

Men calling themselves officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and a judge, told Philip to withdraw cash and not to tell the bank why. A courier would come to his door and give a password, “Code yellow”, to prove the court had sent them.

Over six days he made three withdrawals at two branches of his credit union. He told the tellers it was for a car, then a roof, then an inheritance for his grandson. The third time, he signed a form releasing the credit union from blame if the cash was lost.

His daughter held power of attorney on the account. Nobody called her. She found out when she saw a pickup at her parents’ house.

CBC News, 6 December 2022. “Why didn’t credit union do more to help grandfather scammed out of $28.5K, family asks”

Langford, British Columbia · November 2025

Afterwards, she phoned her grandson’s house. He picked up.

Paid the courier

A woman in Langford, on Vancouver Island, got a call from a man who said he was her grandson, and that he was in jail. Then his “attorney” called: a courier would come to her house for $7,200 in legal fees.

The courier came. Police believe he was a victim too. He had answered a job offer sent to his phone, and a man he knew only as “Top” texted him addresses, told him to keep $200 a time, and to deposit the rest.

In two days he collected from at least three people, about $30,000 in all, then walked into a police detachment to ask whether what he was doing was legal.

Later, the woman phoned her grandson’s home. He picked up.

CBC News, 15 January 2026. “He accepted a fake job offer. Police believe it roped him into a grandparent scam”

Manitoba · January 2023

She paid $8,000. When they asked for $9,000 more, she called her family.

Lost $8,000 · refused the rest

A woman of 73 got a call from her “grandson”. He had been in a car accident, police had found drugs in his car, and he was in jail. A courier came and collected $8,000 to get him out.

Two days later the callers wanted $9,000 more, for lawyer fees. This time she called her family.

Together they set up a sting with the police. The courier talked his way out that day, and kept collecting after two police warnings. He was later convicted and sentenced to three years.

Eight people aged 73 to 89 lost more than $30,000 to the same scam. One of them now answers the phone only when his children’s names show on the screen.

CBC News, 1 October 2025. “Courier in ‘despicable’ grandparent scam sentenced to 3-year jail term”

Vancouver · May 2021

Ten trips for gift cards in five days, with her family in the same building

Lost $20,000

A woman of 74 got a call from someone who sounded exactly like her 24-year-old grandson. There had been a crash, someone was hurt, and he needed money for a lawyer.

“Within the first minute or two, you are grabbed emotionally.”

Then a second man called, as the lawyer. For five days the two of them kept calling, sometimes together. She went to Safeway and Best Buy ten times, bought $2,000 in gift cards each time, and read the codes off the back over the phone.

They told her not to tell her grandson’s parent, who lived in the same building. On the fifth day she asked questions only her grandson could answer, and they could not. The card company would not refund the money. Her advice: agree on a family code word ahead of time.

CBC News, 6 June 2021. “Senior says she was tricked into spending $20K in gift-card phone scam”