Calgary cabbie helps senior dodge social insurance scam
Norman Williams considers himself to be a pretty savvy senior and he tries to keep up with scams targeting people his age, but recently the 87-year-old nearly lost $14,000.
A woman posing as an RCMP member phoned him and told him his social insurance number and other personal information had been found in an abandoned vehicle in Ontario, Williams told CBC News.
She provided Williams with the first digits of his social insurance number and then asked him to confirm the final two.
He complied.
Williams says the woman even provided a police badge number and told him she was only helping him avoid a mess that could see him end up behind bars.
"She said there's money laundering that could have been done through this card and also dope, she said. This way you would be responsible for it because we found all of your papers," Williams said.
Woman was relentless, stayed on phone 7 hours
He says the woman was relentless, staying on the phone with him for seven hours while he drove to one bank and then a second bank to withdraw $14,000 in cash.
He says he tried to get her off the phone but the woman was aggressive and insisted that would be a mistake.
"She was still on all that time," he said.
"Even when I went to the bank she was on the phone and she said don't hang up because that's going to screw the case. She said, 'I'm online with the RCMP and we need all this recorded in the conversation.'"
Police say scammers will use aggressive tactics to keep victims on the phone to make sure they don't call anyone for help or advice.
Senior told to lie to bank teller
In Williams' case, he says he was told to lie to the bank teller and say the withdrawal was to purchase a car.
Williams says he would have lost his money except he got lost himself.
He was supposed to drive the cash to a convenience store where he was told the woman on the phone would be waiting with another police officer.
When he was having trouble finding the drop-off location, the impatient scammer phoned him a taxi.
Cab driver Marek Borokowski picked him up and quickly picked up on the scam.
He took the phone from Williams and questioned the woman on the other end.
Borokowski says the woman then claimed to be Williams' daughter.
"That was suspicious because I could see the number on his phone and it was a 1-800 or 1-877 number, something like that. It was suspicious because I thought usually a daughter would have her own number."
Card declined
He says he ran Williams' card to pay the taxi fare, and it was declined.
Williams went into the convenience store to withdraw cash to pay for his fare, but could not — because he had just withdrawn all of the money.
That's when Williams told the woman on the phone he would have to use a little bit of the money in the envelope to pay the taxi.
Borokowski says at that point he knew something wasn't right.
"I have never seen so much money in an envelope, taken by another person, to pay to somebody else," Borokowski said.
Just part of my job, says cabbie
He convinced Williams he was getting taken for a ride and then gave him a ride back to his car with his $13,880 intact, minus cab fare and a tip.
Williams says Borokowski is a hero.
Borokowski says he was just looking out for a fellow Calgarian.
"It's part of my duty or my job" Borokowski said.
"I'm older too, so I do understand that kind of money can be the savings of his life."
