A McLennan senior has been saved from losing $50,000 in a gift card scam.
The RCMP says a clerk in a local business was approached by an elderly man wanting to purchase gift cards. However, the clerk had previously read an anti-fraud pamphlet handed out by police and became suspicious.
The clerk denied the man’s request, leading the victim to reach out to his family for help. They realized he was being scammed and was in the process of liquidating his assets, including $50,000 in RRSPs.
Mounties say they plan on handing out more of the gift card fraud handouts to businesses across the province to try and bring in more community and business involvement in stopping scams in progress.
RCMP officials suggest when dealing with a potentially suspicious situation involving gift card sales, retailers ask themselves the following:
- Does this transaction make sense?
- Â Would you be okay if your loved one was making this purchase?
Police say in 2019, there were more than 46,000 reports of fraud with around $98 million lost to fraud scammers across the country.