25 Canadians charged in ‘grandparent scam’ targeting U.S. seniors

The office said in a recently unsealed indictment that over a period of three years from 2021 to 2024, the activity involved “phone calls made from call centers in and around Montreal, Québec,” in which “defendants falsely claimed to be an elderly victim’s relative, typically a grandchild, who had been arrested following a car crash and needed money for ‘bail.’”

Other individuals allegedly involved in the scam posed as an “attorney” representing the scam victim’s relative, with victims often told that a “gag order” that ostensibly prevented the victim from telling anyone about the supposed arrest of their family member.

“Elderly victims were convinced to provide bail money to an individual falsely posing as a bail bondsman, who would come to the elderly victim’s home to collect the money,” the attorney’s office said. “This money was later transmitted to Canada following cash deliveries and financial transactions, sometimes involving cryptocurrency, which, the Indictment alleges, obscured the source of the money and the identities of defendants.”

Canadian law enforcement executed search warrants at several call centers last June, allegedly catching the perpetrators in the act as they were making calls to victims in Virginia. The total estimated monetary value of the scams allegedly bilked the victims out of as much as $21 million, according to the attorney’s office.

If convicted, five of the defendants face a maximum prison term of up to 40 years, while the remaining defendants face terms of up to 20 years.

“While the transnational criminal conspiracy described in the indictment preyed on vulnerable victims throughout the United States, these charges are the result of painstaking investigatory work by Vermont-based agents from Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher in a prepared statement.

“In addition, we recognize the extensive investigative assistance provided by Sûreté du Québec and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,” alongside contributions of “numerous other local, state, and federal investigators and agencies across the United States who assisted the investigation, and commended the contributions of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of International Affairs as well as the International Assistance Group at Justice Canada.”

Despite some positive developments in recent years, including data suggesting that baby boomers are more resilient against A.I.-powered scamming activity, older Americans remain a key target of scamming activity by bad actors.

Last summer, consumer and industry advocacy organizations — including the American Land Title Association (ALTA), National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), National Association of Realtors (NAR) and AARP — sounded the alarm over a rising trend of elder real estate fraud and financial exploitation in a jointly released issue brief.

According to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) data cited in the brief, U.S. residents ages 60 and older lost more than $1.9 billion to such scams in 2023 alone. Additional data from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2023 report showed the cohort lost more than $65 million specifically tied to real estate scams, which impacted approximately 1,498 victims.

Based on the FBI data, this constitutes a 14% increase in elder financial exploitation from 2022 levels.