The Guelph Police Service’s Fraud Unit is hoping to educate the deaf community about the latest scam victimizing residents there in attempt to prevent further frauds from happening.
Sergeant Douglas Pflug reported that with the latest scam reported to this week and two other incidents reported in 2010, it appears as though people’s Facebook accounts have been hacked into.
Once hacked, Pflug said the bad guys are contacting friends listed in the Facebook account and tricking them into believing they are eligible for a grant or disability assistance program directed at members of the Deaf Community.
He said the catch is, in order to receive the money, they have to first send money.
All of the victims sent the money through a wire transfer service (such as Western Union or Money Gram) with the promise of more money to come their way, but it never comes.
“When you send money through a wire transfer – the money is delivered instantly – and can be picked up anywhere in the country it is sent to,” Pflug said.
“The suspects involved in the activity are targeting everyone – they don’t care where they steal the money from.”
It is not uncommon for suspects to hack into email and/or Facebook accounts and send messages to that person’s “friends” list.
Pflug concluded, “Because we have had victims from the deaf community in our city, we wanted to reach out and try to educate our community directly.”
