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13 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,M arch 24,2022 insidehalton.com The following is part three of a four-part Halton series on crime in the re- gion. Next week, see part four focusing on residen- tial break-ins. A Halton woman is sharing her family's brush with a grandparent scam in order to help oth- ers avoid falling victim to similar schemes. Sydney, who for safety concerns didn't want to share her last name, said she recently received a flurry of calls from her great aunt one morning. Because she was doing er- rands, she couldn't re- spond until she got home about two hours later. "I called her back, and the first thing she said to me was, 'What's going on? Is he OK?' " she recalled her elderly aunt frantical- ly asking about her broth- er after having received a call from someone posing as him and asking for money. The imposter appar- ently told the aunt that he had been held for bail fol- lowing a text-and-drive in- cident, but couldn't get hold of other family mem- bers. After a quick check, Sydney assured the aunt that her brother, who lives next door, was doing fine. Feeling relieved that the family dodged the at- tempted scam, she was still a little concerned that the perpetrator seemed to know her brother's and mother's names. "What freaked us out was how much informa- tion he had about us," she said, later putting it down to an online obituary as the possible source of in- formation. More Canadians are falling victim to scams targeting seniors and vul- nerable citizens, with re- ported losses of $380 mil- lion in 2021 -- a historic high, according to the Ca- nadian Anti-Fraud Cen- tre. Halton police, in part- nership with Crime Stop- pers of Halton, held a pre- vention seminar recently to raise awareness about scams and frauds in Oak- ville and across the re- gion. At the online seminar, Det. Const. Lorena Mallin- son listed grandparent scam -- or emergency scam -- among the most common ones. The fraud spectrum also includes scams related to lotteries and contests, dating and romance and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). When receiving a call from someone claiming to be a family member -- typ- ically pretending to be in an accident and needing bail money -- or claiming to be a law enforcement of- ficial or lawyer, Mallinson said it's important to stay calm. "A lot of people get wor- ried about their child or the grandchild thinking that they're in trouble or hurt somebody else, and they'll do a lot of things that the grandchild or the lawyer says to do. Just re- member that these calls aren't likely to be real. It's a scam," the detective said. She said a legal entity won't ever ask people to send cash or use a money transfer service. In the case of a bail hearing, she said it's either done at the courthouse or more re- cently online. "We would never ask you to keep it secret and we would be more than happy to have you contact us to try to gather further information," she said. The detective also sug- gested hanging up and calling the family member directly to verify informa- tion, and not to give any personal information away. The seminar also dis- cussed more complex frauds involving busi- nesses, including invest- ment frauds. Det. Const. Kevin Bark- house said that fraud in- volving cryptocurrency is getting very popular. In Halton alone, there have been 57 reports of crypto- currency fraud, totalling $8.3 million in losses. The fraud typically in- volves people receiving unsolicited calls about making investments in a cryptocurrency, promis- ing unrealistically high returns with no risk. "Check the legitimacy of the investment with your provincial or territo- rial regulators. So in On- tario, that's the Ontario Securities Commission," said Barkhouse. When it comes to busi- nesses offering air duct cleaning services or other door-to-door sales that of- ten use high-pressure tac- tics to get people to sign contracts, Barkhouse re- minds residents they have the right to not let anyone into the house. "Ask them to leave and then you can definitely call us and we can have them up and leave," he said. "Call the company yourself to make an ap- pointment if you weren't expecting them." Closing the seminar, Barkhouse said it's impor- tant for victims of fraud to speak out. "Please don't be afraid or embarrassed to report it," he said. "Even if you didn't lose money, it's good to share this information with people. And a lot of times when these things are happening, some of these scammers will pres- sure you not to tell any- body. So you know, it's good to share that with your family or friends." STORY BEHIND THE STORY: As part of Fraud Prevention Month, we wanted to let residents know about some of the more common scams and frauds and share some prevention tips. MORE HALTON RESIDENTS FALLING VICTIM TO FRAUD NEWS Halton police, in partnership with Halton Crime Stoppers, recently held a virtual scam prevention seminar. Halton police screenshot photo WIDE VARIETY OF SCAMS BEING USED THESE DAYS BAMBANG SADEWO bsadewo@metroland.com Although the country is expected to see a rise in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in spring, due to the more conta- gious Omicron BA.2 sub- variant of the virus, Cana- da's top doctor said it would likely still be man- ageable. Dr. Theresa Tam, Cana- da's chief public health of- ficer, said during a CO- VID-19 briefing Friday that based on what the provinces are reporting, hospitalizations could go up when cases increase -- but it won't likely reach the level of the Omicron wave. "We were at some limit of the abilities of the health-care system to cope with the current wave just because of the sheer volume of cases," she said. "Going forward, based on what I have seen from provincial analysis ... they are expecting the hospitalizations to be manageable. But I think we do have to watch that really carefully. And that's why we asked peo- ple to get vaccinated so that the serious outcomes can be prevented." She pointed out that Canada has higher boost- er coverage compared to some countries dealing with the COVID-19 resur- gence. In Halton, one more COVID-related death was recorded in Burlington in the past week, which pushes the death toll in the region to 345. As of March 18, there were six hospitalizations in Halton hospitals, up from four the previous week. Four were admitted because of COVID and two were admitted for other reasons but tested posi- tive for the virus. WEEKLY ROUNDUP: COVID CASES MAY RISE THIS SPRING, SAYS TOP DOCTOR BAMBANG SADEWO bsadewo@metroland.com SCAN THIS CODE to view COVID cases tracker.