One individual has been arrested and charged following a\u00a0recent fraud investigation and grandparent scam.<\/p>\n
“Between February and March 2026, the Winnipeg Police Service Financial Crime Unit received an increase in reports related to grandparent or emergency-type scams. The investigations into these reports is ongoing,” PIO Cst. Dani McKinnon says in a news conference.<\/p>\n
“The Financial Crime Unit has recently arrested and charged an individual in connection with one of these reports in which money was fraudulently obtained.”<\/p>\n
McKinnon says an adult in their 80s received a call on February 27 from someone claiming to be a relative saying that the indivual had been arrested and demanded money.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The scammers indicated that the victim’s relative had been arrested and that they would go to jail should they not provide the money. The victim agreed to pay and an unknown man came to their house and collected the funds.”<\/p>\n
Following the transaction, the victim checked with their family and learned none of it was true. “They made a report to the police and subsequently, the Financial Crimes Unit began an investigation and identified two suspects.\u00a0On March 17, 2026, an adult man and a woman were arrested in the 300 block of Tyson Trail and a 24-year-old man from Quebec was charged with fraud under $5,000 and failed to comply with probation in order times two; he was detained in custody and the woman was not charged.”<\/p>\n
The investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n
Related Stories:<\/p>\n
To help Manitobans not fall victim in grandparent scams,\u00a0the Winnipeg Police Service in partnership with A&O: Support Services for Older Adults (A&O) launched a six month $134,000 campaign, Just Hang Up to protect older adults.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After launching in March 2026, Fraud Prevention Month, McKinnon says the presentation has been seen by hundreds. “The Just Hang Up presentation has already been delivered to more than 300 people, and this has occurred at seniors living centers, church groups, and a fitness facility.”<\/p>\n
Following the presentations, Manitobans are reportedly learning how to protect themselves. “89.8 per cent of the respondents, as a small survey follows the presentation, indicated they would be able to recognize if they were contacted by a telephone scammer.<\/p>\n
“In terms of what to do, 84.7 per cent indicated that if they were a victim of a telephone scam, they would know how to report it. Out of these 300 people, six indicated that they were indeed called by a scammer and provided what the scammer asked for, whether that’s money or gift cards or some type of currency.”<\/p>\n
While WPS believes only fiv to 10 per cent of victims report this type of fraud,\u00a0<\/p>\n
While grandparent scams are not new,\u00a0Sergeant Trevor Thompson of the Financial Crime Unit says reporting it is important. “There’s been an uptick in February and March, and that’s why we’re really pushing the Just Hang Up campaign and why we’re really appealing to people that if you believe you’ve been victimized in the grandparent emergency scam, phone the financial crime unit. Talk to an investigator. We’re trying to overcome the hurdles of people being embarrassed or ashamed. To make these reports, the information that they have is the key that unlocks the door for us to further the investigation. If we don’t have the reports, we don’t have that information, we can’t speak to those people, then that makes it exponentially more difficult.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One individual has been arrested and charged following a\u00a0recent fraud investigation and grandparent scam. “Between February and March…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-565050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565050","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=565050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}