Sherbrooke, Magog police warn of scammers active in the area

The Sherbrooke and Memphremagog police both issued warnings on Thursday that there continue to be suspicious and fraudulant phone calls being made in the area.
In Sherbrooke, the police report that an individual claiming to be an employee of a bank or credit union contacts victims by telephone stating that their ATM and credit cards had been defrauded. The fake employee then asks to give the cards and the PIN to a Canada Post employee who, by chance, is already there in front of their residence. In one case, the suspect is wearing a Canada Post uniform. In the three files investigated by the SPS, the victims were over 70 years old.
In this type of fraud, the suspects are often very insistent. If in doubt, people are encouraged to hang up when you receive a call of this nature and never hesitate to call the Police Department at 819-821-5555 or 9-1-1.
In Magog, police note that fraudsters with a nearly identical plan have targeted seniors by contacting victims over the phone with a number on the display showing the name of a financial institution. As was the case with the Sherbrooke report, the fraudster then poses as an employee of the banking institution and reports a false transaction on the account of the person to be defrauded.
Thanks to the vigilance of a citizen, the Magog police (RPM) managed to arrest a 19-year-old man from Montreal who showed up at a victim’s home to supposedly “recover” the cards in the name of Canada Post. He was wearing an orange bib with a Canada Post logo during his arrest.
After investigation, the subject was linked to 2 other similar frauds that occurred in the hours preceding his arrest.
Despite this arrest, The RPM note that five fraud cases with the same technique were reported to the police over the course of the day on Wednesday, alone. In three cases, the fraudster and his accomplices managed to extract money from bank accounts for a total of just over $2,000.
Asked whether the arrest in Magog might be connected to the Sherbrooke cases, the SPS told The Record that the two police forces are in communication about the matter but have not come to any conclusions as yet. Both services pointed out, however, that this type of fraud is increasingly common, and that one arrest does not necessarily mean that the problem is solved
The RPM is reminding citizens never to give out a PIN to anyone and that a financial institution will never ask you to put your financial cards in the mail or outside your home for recovery.
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