{"id":193841,"date":"2025-10-06T21:06:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T21:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/193841\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T21:06:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T21:06:13","slug":"airport-warns-about-catfishing-as-people-arrive-to-meet-loved-ones-who-dont-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/193841\/","title":{"rendered":"Airport warns about catfishing as people arrive to meet loved ones who don\u2019t exist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The head of a central Newfoundland airport is warning the public after staff noticed an increase in people who appear to have been victims of a manipulative scheme known as catfishing.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759603997_236_70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Reg Wright, chief executive of the Gander International Airport, said Monday that more people have been arriving at the Gander International Airport to meet someone they\u2019ve been speaking with online, only to find the person doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n<p>The people are often elderly and perhaps widowed, he said, adding that the situation is \u201ccrushing\u201d for staff and victims. It prompted airport officials to post a warning on social media last week, urging people to check in on their loved ones, especially seniors, and be careful online.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got to look out for each other, because I tell you, once people get separated a little bit, and isolated and lonely, there\u2019s a huge vulnerability there,\u201d Wright said in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there\u2019s someone in your family who\u2019s engaged deeply in an online relationship, you probably need to nose yourself into the frame and ask a few questions,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/national.jpg\" alt=\"Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n<p>Get the day&#8217;s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n<p>Catfishing involves using a fake online persona to deceive someone, often to extract money from them. Staff at the Gander airport noticed six such victims in the past month, Wright said. Some will approach staff with their online extorter\u2019s travel itinerary, with fake flight numbers and other sure signs nobody was arriving.<\/p>\n<p>They arrive in their \u201cSunday best, with a fresh coat of lipstick\u201d and hearts full of \u201clove and anticipation,\u201d he said. Staff have to tell them something is wrong.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Canada<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The victims have \u201calmost always\u201d given the scammer money, he added.<\/p>\n<p>One staff member spent hours with a woman last week who\u2019d been scammed, trying to find family members who could safely bring her home, Wright said. They didn\u2019t find anyone.<\/p>\n<p>He said Gander is likely a microcosm, reflecting a trend worsening across the country.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11465319\/quebec-durable-goods-law-comes-into-effect\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759784773_78_6cf8f993e2ce8d234a5e5a3542ecfd784ec6f4001f29e594ae98e2bf7672bdfd.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tQuebec durable goods law comes into effect\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11466050\/france-prime-minister-resigns\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2a54da871a9bfd8a4fb1013e11b537bea98c88f7e20985b90f128f68abc37e6c.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tFrance\u2019s new prime minister resigns hours after naming government\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cpl. Jesse O\u2019Donaghey with the Newfoundland and Labrador RCMP agrees. Though he didn\u2019t have official figures, O\u2019Donaghey said anecdotally, the frequency of online scams such as catfishing seems to be going up.<\/p>\n<p>Some victims are so traumatized and humiliated, they won\u2019t even tell their families, even if they\u2019ve been financially ruined, O\u2019Donaghey said in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>He said anyone who suspects their family member is falling victim to a catfishing scam should talk to them and help them cut off all contact with the person.<\/p>\n<p>They should proceed with compassion and expect a difficult conversation, he said. The scammers do extensive research on their victims and spend weeks and months building a relationship with them, he said. It can be hard for victims to see the relationship is made up.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Donaghey said to watch out for online romance partners who make constant excuses to avoid meeting in person. Typically, scammers also invent a crisis and ask the victim for money, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to it, it\u2019s so convoluted. That\u2019s why it can be successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of a central Newfoundland airport is warning the public after staff noticed an increase in people&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,96454,96455],"class_list":["post-193841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-catfishing","tag-gander-international-airport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}