Erin resident loses $50,000 in phone scam

A man holds a phone and a banking card in this undated stock image. (Mikhail Nilov/Pexels.com)

An Erin resident has lost $50,000 after falling victim to a scammer pretending to work for their bank.

The resident told Wellington County Ontario Provincial Police they received a call on Jan. 17 from an unknown number. The caller said they were a fraud investigator from a local bank and provided details about the victim, including their banking information. The caller asked the victim questions, getting them to reveal more personal information, and kept them on the phone for more than 5 hours.

The victim was told their banking cards were no longer valid and a courier would come to their home to pick them up. The courier used a pre-arranged ‘password’ to convince the victim to hand over their cards.

Once they had the victim’s cards, the scammers took $50,000 from their bank account.

The victim then suspected they were being targeted by a fraud and called police.