Bud McGinnis is just as irked – and he's fighting back. The 86-year-old retired research scientist in Ottawa is on a quest to fraud-proof others. As part of his volunteer work with the Rotary Club of West Ottawa, Bud works with a national program called the ABCs of Fraud. He takes the scam-busting workshop to seniors, church groups, clubs and other parties that contact him and want to learn how to avoid being ripped off. With straight talk, videos, skits and question-and-answer sessions, Bud gives people the facts they need to protect themselves from becoming targets. "Seniors are trusting and polite. Fraudsters and scam artists take advantage of these characteristics. Oftentimes [seniors are] at home most of the day and can answer the phone or the door. Many of them are lonely," he explains. "And when you have a lonely person and somebody with a big smile at the door, there’s a bit of a bond immediately. And then, of course, we [seniors] are slipping mentally and physically. So all of these factors come into play."
What to watch out for
• Snail mail scams. Plenty of scam artists skulk their way into seniors' lives via snail mail. There's the sweepstakes letter, for example, a glossy, official-looking document gloriously announcing that the addressee has won a ton of cash. The catch is that the individual has to send a fee to the lottery company before collecting the prize. The bucks never show up, of course, and the smoothest scammers sucker a senior into sending cheque after cheque. "Sometimes people actually think they won," says Marcy Ages, a financial planner with T.E. Wealth in Toronto. "If you have been living alone, it gives you hope."
Bud tells the story of a friend in her 90s who has accumulated a stack of sweepstakes letters saying she has won millions. A recent letter offering a $25,000 prize asked her to send a $40 fee. She was ready to take a chance and sign a cheque, but Bud talked her out of it. "I'm sure that had we not been there to counsel her, she could have been taken for quite a bit of money," he says.
• Phone fraudsters. These individuals are just as insidious, with their over-the-top promises of free trips to Vegas, fabulous cruises and big-money prizes. A typical caller, apparently experiencing paroxysms of excitement, will congratulate the person and then ask for a credit card number or other personal information. Again, up-front fees are usually presented as the key to glorious riches or dreamy vacations. "The rules simply don't allow that," explains Doug Simpson, president of the Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus. "In Canada, for example, you can't charge up-front advance fees for those sorts of things. But probably the majority of people don't realize it."
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