{"id":497556,"date":"2026-02-25T01:57:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497556\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T01:57:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:57:16","slug":"manitoba-anti-fraud-campaign-targets-older-adults-winnipeg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497556\/","title":{"rendered":"Manitoba anti-fraud campaign targets older adults &#8211; Winnipeg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Urgency, panic and fear are all characteristics of grandparent scams.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhich often causes people to have a blocked sense of reality. They don\u2019t know what to do. They freeze,\u201d Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) Const. Dani McKinnon said.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a scheme that impersonates familiar or authoritative voices and can con seniors out of thousands of dollars. It\u2019s also a pressing issue in Manitoba.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Anti Fraud Centre found that Manitobans 60 and over reported losing nearly $350,000 in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are under-reported. We get 5-10 per cent of what we actually think is happening out there,\u201d WPS Insp. Jennifer McKinnon said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Northern Manitoba seniors targeted in \u2018grandparent scam,\u2019 RCMP say'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/LD_6P_RCMP_GRANDPARENTS_OM01IOPR_thumbnail_1280x720.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t0:44<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNorthern Manitoba seniors targeted in \u2018grandparent scam,\u2019 RCMP say\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Now, the Manitoba government, WPS and seniors support services group A &amp; O are trying to combat this serious issue by launching a new campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust Hang Up is aimed at at protecting older adults from financial and emotionally devastating outcomes related to prevalent phone scams,\u201d Dani McKinnon said.<\/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\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\" alt=\"For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n<p>The Manitoba government provided $134,000 from the Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund to fund this campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11679472\/mexico-jalisco-violence-el-mencho-explained\/\" 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\/2026\/02\/1771984636_11_El-Mencho-Mexico-composite-e1771868966652.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tWho was \u2018El Mencho,\u2019 the Mexican drug lord whose death sparked violence?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11679861\/kendamil-baby-formula-recall\/\" 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\/2026\/02\/1771984636_723_baby-formula-e1771879484466.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tKendamil baby formula sold at Costco recalled due to toxin concerns\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen in doubt about a phone call, just hang up,\u201d Manitoba Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said.<\/p>\n<p>Carmen Nedohin, past chair of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, says she gets up to six scam emails and calls a day.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Canada<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause I\u2019ve seen them so many times, can distinguish between what is a scam and what is reality, but I know that isn\u2019t always the case,\u201d Nedohin said.<\/p>\n<p>Nedohin and fellow seniors advocate Connie Newman encourage families to use a safe word for scam prevention.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did it with kids going to school. If someone comes to pick you up, they have to have a code word. It\u2019s the same thing for older adults,\u201d Newman, who is the executive director of Manitoba Association of Senior Communities, said.<\/p>\n<p>As for those who might have been contacted by a potential frauded?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe encourage you to report, even if there is no financial loss,\u201d Dani McKinnon said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Urgency, panic and fear are all characteristics of grandparent scams. \u201cWhich often causes people to have a blocked&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,20403,22073],"class_list":["post-497556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fraud","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497556","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=497556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}