Two siblings in Saskatoon allege their father was taken advantage of and caught in a fraud scam earlier this month.
Judy King and her brother Mitch Empey say their father Harold Empey, who is 88 and has dementia, received a call saying he won a truck and $250,000 in the STARS lottery. But in order to claim “his prize from him”, he would need to give them $2,500.
Mitch says the scammer called his dad a taxi on June 8 and drove him to Affinity Credit Union on Eighth Street where he withdrew $500. Within an hour, another taxi brought him back to the bank again to withdraw $1,900.
After taking out the money, he was taken to Shoppers Drug Mart where he bought an express parcel package and shipped the money to the US to an unknown address.
“Understand that dad would have never done this on his own. He has to be prompted every step of the way, he has vascular dementia,” King told CTV News.
Mitch says his father called him to say he won a prize and wanted him to have his photo taken. Mitch came over and saw all the receipts his dad had kept and instantly noticed a “red flag.”
That day, Mitch called the bank to prevent his dad from accessing funds.
But the scam didn’t end there.
The next day, Harold received another call saying a cab was outside to take him to the bank again. The retirement home where his father lives called Mitch to let him know their dad was gone.
King said she felt “sick to his stomach.”
The siblings say they called the police and managed to block the cab driver in the parking lot at Affinity Credit Union.
“We made sure dad was safe, police roll in, parking lot’s a zoo now. We got police, we got lights, we got people yelling, I was yelling,” Mitch said.
“It was gut-wrenching, makes me want to throw up when I think about it.”
When police arrived, Empey said they were asked to pay the fare so the driver could leave.
In an email to CTV news, the Saskatoon Police Service said no one has been charged in relation to the investigation.
King and Empey say their father has no memory of the events but has been able to piece together a timeline through papers, receipts and phone calls.
The cab company involved in the final trip, YXE City Cab, told CTV News the driver of the taxi and company “had no idea” of the alleged scam over the phone.
“He was just assigned a trip that came to our dispatch so he didn’t know much about it and he just kind of got scared and said ‘Okay I’m going to call my dispatch I don’t know what you guys are talking about about,’” said the company’s director Atta-ul-mujeeb Saqib about the driver being confronted at the bank.
King says she wants people to look out for their seniors by checking their phones and blocking unknown numbers.
“Talk to your siblings, talk to people. The more we get this out, hopefully, people won’t go through what we have.”