- pleasant wanted $400 for a club miember- ‘ship fee. vented a local person from losing more than $1,600 to a suspicious phone solicitation company. _ The bait used against the 75- " year-old woman is fairly common — a person is told they’ve won $25,000 but they must first send sales lax in cash. In this case, the woman did send $1,630 via a courier compa- “ny but it and a locai RCMP of- ficer stopped the delivery to the Quebec-based phone firm. *"We can't say it was a scam but it had all the makings — you never know,” said Constable Kim Hall who worked with Loomis on the matter. Hall said she was made aware of the situation from the woman’s daughter after the package with the money had been sent. “It was sent to Quebec, Luckily "the Woman put the wrong postal code on the package,’” said Hall. “There were some frantic phone calls from here to Quebec. Because of the postal code, Loomis still had the package. Otherwise, it would have been delivered. Ps Loomis held the package at Hall’s request but the phone solicitation company made anoth- er attempt to get the money. “‘A man called the woman back and said they were going to suc everybody, including the RCMP ’ if she didn’t make sure the pack- age was delivered,” Hall. con- tinued. “She called Loomis and asked that it be delivered, I had asked Loomis to call me to confirm be- cause that man may have had a ~ Woman almost lost $1,600 Police expose phone scam QUICK THINKING has pre- female accomplice who could have called with those Instnic- tions,” she said. Loomis did phone Hall and she was able to stop the second delivery attempt. “‘There’s some good people at Loomis. They were very help- ful,’’ said Hall of the events. | One Loomis employee, Hall added, was familiar with the ad- dress of the phone solicitalion company, “Tt was on what he called ‘pen alley’,”’ said Hall of the phrase used to describe the area in which solicitation companies work. The word ‘pen’ comes from a one-time standard phoned-based scam in which people are sold in- ferior pens at extravagant prices. These types of scams are all to frequent and prey mainly on older * people, said Hall. She wamed people that if voice on the phone offers some- thing too good to be true, that’s usually the case. One particularly brutal scheme takes two whacks at unsuspecting _people who send money from Canada to the United States. ‘When the cheque does get there, the person is phoned and told they had sent the money in Canadian funds, so please send more to cover the exchange,” said Hall. Hall gave a brief presentation last week at the seniors’ Happy Gang Centre on the dangers of phone soliciting. She asked those at the meeting to check with relatives or the RCMP first before sending any money. ‘These people are very good at what they do,’* Hall warned, A goodly number of those pres- ent at the meeting indicated they received phone calls from com- panies telling them they’ve won cash, vacations or vehicles, Smooth talker stings woman By JENNIFER McLARTY A TERRACE resident is out $200 after responding to a personnel ad that originated in Smithers and which also ran in The Terrace Standard. * Ingrid Weik, 60, said she sent the money in response to the ad promoting a companions’ club. - Weik responded to the ad and soon found herself talking to a sounding man wha The cordial voice on the other end of the line made her forget that the ad had clearly stated the list was free. Unable to pull together the full amount, she sent a Mr. Keith Hutcheon a $200 cheque via the post box number in return for a list of eligible bachelors, What she got was disappointing —a list of names with addresses but without phone numbers. Weik selected two and the meetings were arranged, one at her home, the other at a hotel in Burns Lake. “Both meetings were night- mares,’? Weik said. The men were elther unemploy- ed, sexually aggressive or, bully- ing, not at all. the dream she had ‘of finding s soniecne to spend time with. Both men. had also paid Hutcheon $200 or more for a list of women in the area. Frustrated with the results, Weik tried to get in touch with Hutcheon, but the contact num- bers given to her were no longer in service. She also tried the ‘motel where Hutcheon said he sometimes ar- ranged meetings between clients, ' but the staff have no record of the name. wan ; “Now I’m out $200 and still alone,” Weik said. ‘This man is running a scam and should be stopped from preying on lonely people like myself.”” The ad stopped running i in mid July in both papers. 3. , Ads run by NeWERAPEE «ft. i often taken on the basis of buyer beware. “It's like running an ad for a ‘used car that says ‘excellent con- dition,'”’ said Vic Swan, [mterior News: publisher. “We have to trust the advertiser is being honest.’ Only obvious scams that ask for money outright in exchange for information are avoided by papers. THE EVIL art of phone scams was the topic last week of a talk by RCMP Constable Kim Hall to a seniors’ meeting. When in doubl, ask questions she says. 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