Shoppers Drug Mart staff in Nanaimo stop elderly woman from being scammed out of $4,000

Shoppers Drug Mart staff in Nanaimo stop elderly woman from being scammed out of $4,000
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Police are praising staff members at a Shoppers in Nanaimo who stopped a scam after an elderly woman tried to buy gaming cards. Photo courtesy of CBC.

Police are praising staff members at a Shoppers in Nanaimo who stopped a scam after an elderly woman tried to buy gaming cards. Photo courtesy of CBC.

Quick-thinking employees at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Nanaimo helped to stop a scam that could have cost an elderly woman $4,000.

Nanaimo RCMP have praised staff members who contacted the police when they realized the woman was struggling to understand she was falling victim to a scam.

According to police, on March 8, an 82-year-old woman went into a Shoppers Drug Mart on Mary Ellen Drive asking if she could buy $4,000 in gaming cards.

Given the amount asked for, the employee thought the woman was being duped and asked her why she needed so many cards. The woman told the employee she had just received a phone call from her son who told her he was in financial trouble and the only way out of his mess was to buy $4,000 in gaming cards, called Steam Cards.

Police said the woman said she was told to send the cards to her son’s lawyer’s office in the Lower Mainland. The woman also told the employee she had spoken with her son’s lawyer and then an RCMP officer who repeated the story.

According to police, the employee told the woman it was a scam. However, the woman said she knew of the iTunes scam but this was real. Over the next few minutes, four different employees tried to tell her it was a scam but she wasn’t convinced. Eventually, the woman said if they would not sell her the cards, she would buy them at Walmart.

The Shoppers Drug Mart employees immediately reported the incident to police and told them the woman would be driving to Walmart. The dispatch operator called Walmart and when the woman arrived, she was again prevented from making the purchase.

The dispatch centre and a Nanaimo RCMP officer followed up with the woman by phone. Police said it was only then that she realized it was a scam.

These types of scams tug at your heartstrings which is why they are so effective,  said Const. Gary O’Brien of the Nanaimo RCMP said.

To learn more about frauds and scams, visit the Canadian Anti Fraud centre at http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/index-eng.htm

Alexa HuffmanAlexa Huffman

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