I was on hiatus from CP when this happened, and I always wanted to share it here as a PSA.
If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. I used to deal with people that went through this stuff all the time when I worked as a Finance guy at our dealership. And I'd also help them fix it. I thought I knew all the scams. These guys got me good, and it was professional right down intermittent beeps you hear in the background when you are on the phone with police.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4284406/c...ty-theft-scam/
Interesting story how this ended up as a news story.
I had access to the buildings security cameras, as I was on the condo board when we had it installed, and I was the one that shopped for the system and installer. I had this footage that night. Also, about a dozen mailboxes were hit on our street, and there were a lot of victims. I told the Police, I can put their pictures up on Facebook, give you the pictures to post on your site, Crimestoppers, whatever. There was a lot of people that were pretty rattled. And I had incredible evidence with crystal clear photos.
They were totally disinterested, they fed me BS lines like... "It might harm our investigation, tip them off, etc...." I disagreed, as if they were just vagabonds 'passing through', it would be best to release it now before they moved on. I check-in a week later, "We'll get back to you, still in progress" 2 weeks later I call again, and get another officer "Oh, yeah, the investigator is back from his softball tournament tomorrow, nothing has been done yet."
I just believe they weren't interested in pursuing it and they actually said to me "The Credit Card company will give you your money back...you're not really a victim." Well trying to get your money back on cash advances... lol good luck with that, and I was super rattled and felt very violated. I was a victim, and was not happy with that statement, so decided to just get the ball rolling on identifying them.
I was pretty pissed. I had clear pictures, this wasn't a one off, and there were a ton of victims. I knew Nancy and asked her if she wanted to do a story. I was willing to endure the humiliation of getting scammed, as long as you put their pictures clearly in the story. That's the only condition. It was personal, I wanted these people caught. I talked to them on the phone for gods sake.
Story runs, Global gets tips within minutes, and they are arrested within 3 days. 8 months later or so I was asked to make a victim impact statement, but was too afraid to. These guys knew my name, address, personal info etc... it was actually the last nail in the coffin I needed to buy a house in Cochrane. I just didn't want to live in that place anymore.
But I'm not a "victim", right CPS? Because I got 5000 of the 6000 back from the CC company. I was privy to the sentencing information, but didn't even want to know what it was, as I would have been even more upset, at the 6 hours of community service they likely got.