Dear Editor:
I received a phone call, supposedly from my grandson in Ontario - who called me "uncle" and sounded like he had a bad cold. He said that yes he did but was in trouble as he had been in a car accident, with a rented car and was hurt with the deployment of the air bag. Rental insurance covered most of the damage, but he still needed to pay $1,000 to be released from the courthouse. He had been provided with legal aid, and this person spoke and explained that the money was needed for his release and gave us instructions to forward same through Western Union and said our grandson didn't want his parents to know.
Sent the money and then started to realize, I'm his grandfather, not uncle and the voice, although sounding like him, was not quite the same. Anyway I wasn't smart enough to know - most disturbing was he sounded like our grandson.
We decided to let his parents know, not realizing that if he had been hurt, as next of kin they would have been notified. Anyway, no, their son was fine and he didn't have an Ontario driver's licence (nor a valid B.C. licence) so no way he could have rented a car.
Reported it to the Ontario Provincial Police and as well the local RCMP, both of whom advised that we had been scammed by the "Grandparents Scam."
So 80-plus years old and still not as smart as I should have been. Lesson: don't trust phone calls like we received.
Gord Smith
North Vancouver
