Banks must do more to help prevent scams

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/09/2025 (210 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As anyone who has ever been smotheringly hugged, infallibly fussed over or fed a boundless supply of home-baked cookies can attest, there’s nothing quite like the love of a grandparent for a grandchild.

It’s an affection, and a commitment, that is simple, pure, direct and unwavering. Which is precisely why there have come into being such things as so-called “grandparent scams” — financial predations that seek to exploit the love and loyalty of seniors whose eagerness to help and willingness to believe might make them easy targets for manipulation.

Grandparent scams have been in circulation for years, but as technology evolves and developments such as artificial intelligence become more easily harnessed, they have become increasingly sophisticated and convincing.

As recent news reports have detailed, scammers have become quite adept at using information culled from social media and other online sources to create narratives which, when presented to a senior who might not be sufficiently aware of such frauds when the scammer’s call arrives, can convince a grandparent to hand over large amounts of money to what they believe is a grandchild in crisis.

Take, for example, the swindle that was perpetrated recently on an elderly Winnipegger. The octogenarian grandmother received an early-morning phone call from someone who sounded convincingly like her grandson, claiming he had been in a serious car accident, was facing criminal charges and needed bail money.

“It sounded like him 100 per cent,” said the woman, who added the “grandson” provided details of an upcoming family dinner and of his pilot training to lend credibility to his story. After speaking to a second person claiming to be the grandson’s lawyer, the woman went to her local TD Bank — at which she has been an account holder for 60 years — and arranged the transfer of $5,000. Another $5,000 transfer was requested and sent the following day, with no questions asked by the bank’s staff.

It was only after the second transfer was made, in a subsequent phone conversation, that the scam victim began to have doubts and asked to speak to the grandson and demanded further information.

The caller abruptly hung up. Fraud completed, money gone, in textbook grandparent-scam style.

In the aftermath, the grandparent’s daughter flew in from her out-of-province home, hoping to help them recover what had been lost. She says the bank should have done more to protect her parents.

“I want TD taken to task,” she said. “Nobody questioned it. Nobody thought twice about it. … I think they had an obligation (to help spot the scam). They keep saying they take it seriously and they look after their customers. It’s all a bunch of bulls–t.”

According to a bank spokesperson, the status of the case is under review. Whether a measure of relief will be offered remains to be seen, but one can’t help wondering if more could have been done in the moment, while the swindle was occurring. It’s true that every major bank has, on its website, prominently displayed information regarding grandparent scams and how to avoid falling victim to them; it’s also true that each of us is responsible for safeguarding our finances and, when necessary, for helping our elders avoid falling victim to financial flim-flam schemes.

But given all the personal information, spending-pattern data and advanced security measures at their disposal on an ongoing basis, one can’t help wondering if there isn’t more Canada’s banks could be doing proactively to alert and protect their most scam-susceptible customers from falling for what has quickly become one of the oldest and most obvious tricks in the financial-crime book.

» Winnipeg Free Press