Grandparent fraud is a growing problem in Canada. The fraud method targets the elderly, and the fraudsters usually pretend to be a needy family member, in dire need of financial support from their “grandparents”. Last year alone, Canadians lost more than NOK 70 million to so-called “emergency fraud”, which includes, among other things, grandparent fraud.

Last week, the scammers tried again by phoning a 74-year-old woman in Windsor, Ontario. On the phone, the fraudster said he was arrested by accident. He broke down and said he loved his “grandmother”, at the same time that he immediately needed just over NOK 70,000 as bail.

The woman on the other end of the line, a grandmother named Bonnie Bednarik, however, felt the fuse. She addressed the caller with a different name than her grandson and began hatching her own plan to trick the scammer into rolling.

On the phone, Grandma Bonnie said she needed to call the bank and ask her husband to pick up the car. Instead she called the police, wrote Washington Post.

When the two fraudsters showed up at the door to collect the money, they were both arrested. Police also found money from two previous frauds. The two men, aged 19 and 22 respectively, are now charged with serious fraud.

– Although we have arrested the suspects in this case, police are urging everyone to be vigilant when receiving calls from people claiming to be relatives, police say in A declaration.