Frauds Galore in Woodstock

Thursday, 19 November 2015 at 14:14

Woodstock Police received several calls about telephone scams in the Friendly City - one turned particularly ugly.

WOODSTOCK - Woodstock Police are reporting a number of frauds in the Friendly City.

Yesterday morning around 9:32 a.m. an 87 year old woman was called by a man who demanded money. The man threatened to have a lawyer come to woman at her home. Thankfully the woman did not give the man any personal information.

Also yesterday morning, a 55 year old woman received a telephone message at 11:55 a.m. The man identified himself as Eric Forrester and claimed to be from the Canada Revenue Agency. When the woman called him back, the man was extremely rude and vulgar. The Anti-Fraud Centre has confirmed that this man is from another country and has been successful in scamming people in the past. The man was using the number 613-817-3509. Constable Nikki VanLeeuwen says if you receive a message from this man, do not return the call. "I would suggest that if anyone receives a call or a message from this person - he wasn't leaving rude and vulgar messages on their answering machine just high pressure - but just not to even call them back. Because if you call him back this particular person is extremely rude and vulgar. It would definitely upset a person from the calls he has had with people."

An 86 year old man also received a call from an unknown person yesterday afternoon around 2:50 p.m. The man gave his credit card number to the caller, but after calling the police he thankfully did not lose any funds to the scammer.

Another call went out yesterday afternoon - this one to a 73 year old man. The caller said he was from a law office and the homeowner needed to call him back or police would be coming to his house. The homeowner didn't call back.

And then finally this morning around 8 a.m. police heard another complaint from a person who had received a call from someone claiming to be from a law office. The caller said they had won a lottery and asked for personal information. The caller did not get any personal information.

VanLeeuwen says it's a time of year where we need to be vigilant and keep an eye out for these types of scams. "I'm not sure if people are taking advantage of certain people's generosity or hoping that they're preoccupied or more of a stressful time of year for people so they have a better chance of duping people - I'm sure those are all factors."