NEWS RELEASE
SOUTH SIMCOE POLICE
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On Tuesday, November 10, 2015, a woman, pretending to be a lawyer with a prestigious Toronto law firm, called the Tanger Outlet Mall to inquire about purchasing $20,000 in gift cards as a corporate giveaway.
She was instructed to attend with a bank draft in order to make such a large purchase.
At the end of the business day, a suspect attended, posing as the assistant of the earlier woman.
She produced what appeared to be a legitimate bank draft and ID, and was given the gift cards.
By the time the draft was rejected by the bank, the suspect had made $11,000 in purchases on the gift cards.
Video surveillance will be handed over to investigators to assist in identifying the suspect.
Often, fraudsters will use elaborate stories with legitimate businesses as a cover in order to gain the confidence of their victims.
In these cases the purchases are large to make the victim eager to make the sale.
Cheques, bank drafts and credit cards can easily be created by fraud suspects to fool most people.
Be wary when any windfall comes your way, often what seems too good to be true can be a ruse.
Learn more about fraud and how you can protect yourself at www.antifraudcentre.ca.
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