The Weyburn Police Service is warning of a scam going around that mainly targets the elderly. 

The scammer will usually say that they’re the victim’s grandchild, and claim to be arrested or in an accident and need money for bail or insurance. In a recent case in Weyburn the scammer claimed to be the police and needed bail money for the victim’s grandchild.  

“The scammers out there are always looking for new ways to scam the elderly,” Police Chief Jamie Blunden said. “Today unfortunately, they contacted a grandparent of an individual and indicated that he was in custody and that he needed some bail money to the tune of a large amount of money and so that grandparent felt obligated to go and get some money.” 

The Weyburn Police service was able to talk to the grandparent and tell her that this was most likely a scam, and to not to give anyone the money.  

Blunden wants to prevent people from falling for these scams in the future.  

“Just reach out to the elderly relatives of yours and make sure you have a conversation with them that if anybody ever calls in any circumstance asking for money, they should be talking to you directly before they make any decisions, because there's a lot of scammers out there that prey on the elderly, so we want to stop that.” 

While this scam targets the elderly, everyone should be cautious when dealing with phone calls or messages asking for money.  

“Whether it's the bank, whether it's a credit card company, whether it's people calling, saying that your relatives are in trouble, make sure you reach out and speak to somebody specifically before you hit the send button on any sort of transaction for money.”   

Blunden adds that he thinks it comes down to common sense and having those conversations with family members.