A bank card fraudster was recently accused of robbing 55 elderly people, the oldest of whom was 98 years old, less than a month after his release from prison.
Jean-François Gagnon and an alleged accomplice still wanted, Kevin Lelièvre, managed to extort no less than $247,324 between January and September 2023. They are accused of having used the “false representative” fraud which is currently sweeping across Quebec . It targets seniors who have their personal identification numbers as well as their debit and credit cards stolen by fake representatives of banking institutions.
Jean-François Gagnon was arrested and accused of defrauding 55 vulnerable people by convincing them to provide him with their bank cards.
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Scams of this type appeared in 2020 and since then, their number has exploded, especially in Quebec. According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center, fake representatives took more than $10 million from their victims last year alone.
In Gagnon’s case, he would have made a first victim on January 9, 2023, after having obtained his release from prison the previous December 19 for another fraud. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for a doctored barcode scheme.
As part of his new fraud charges filed last December, he is suspected of having caused victims in 29 cities in Quebec, from Quebec to Laval via Granby and Donnacona. Their average age was 80 years.
As you will see in the show I broadcast this evening at 8 p.m. on TVA, several fraudsters first target their victims by using the Canada411 virtual telephone directory.
They search for names normally carried by seniors like Maurice and Thérèse, which gives them access to their address and telephone number.
Fake numbers
The fake representatives then use apps that allow them to display any number on their victims’ phones when they call them.
The scam is done in just a few minutes.
“What happens is that on your phone, it shows Caisse Desjardins. Right away, that gives you confidence,” confided Ginette Groleau during an interview on the show I
Ginette Groleau was a victim of fake representative fraud. She gave her cards to an individual who posed as a Desjardins representative.
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“I was called and told that my card had been used in Ville Lasalle. I said to myself: how can you use a map when you have it in your hand? I didn’t understand…” says the octogenarian from Brossard.
An accomplice who recovered his cards then managed to withdraw nearly $1,000 from his accounts before Desjardins blocked access.
An accomplice of the false representative was filmed while he presented himself at Ginette Groleau’s house.
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According to the Sûreté du Québec, certain well-organized networks with call centers specialize in false representative fraud, which allows them to claim numerous victims throughout Quebec.
Several false representative fraud cases have ended up in court.
Last year, Isakya Gélinas, a fraudster who took $213,000 from 77 victims in 13 cities in Quebec, was sentenced to three years in prison.
Gélinas was arrested in January 2023 when she had just collected the bank cards of a couple from Saint-Raymond-de-Portneuf, in the Quebec region.
Police officers from the Sûreté du Québec intercepted her after she had withdrawn more than $9,000 from ATMs.
“When we look at the overall picture, we see that these are very significant frauds with a very simple modus operandi, but which generates very significant losses and consequences,” tells us Julien Beauchamp-Laliberté, a prosecutor who coordinates fraud cases of false representatives before the courts of Quebec.
Me Julien Beauchamp-Laliberté
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2900 investigation files
Since 2020, the Sûreté du Québec, the police services of the City of Montreal and the City of Quebec have opened more than 2,900 false representative fraud investigation files.
There were also investigations carried out by numerous municipal police forces throughout the province.
According to the Sûreté du Québec, the targeted victims are vulnerable people whose average age is 77 years old.
Fraudsters rush to withdraw large sums of money before the victim realizes the scam.
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The amount of losses is $3,400 on average, with the largest amount of fraud amounting to $90,000 and the smallest $60.
How it works
- Fake representatives are looking for first names of elderly people on Canada 411 (Maurice, Nicole, etc.)
- They call them by having the number of a bank or credit union displayed on their phone
- They get the personal identification number of their cards and ask to put them in an envelope
- A courier will collect the envelope and immediately make withdrawals at the counter or purchases
- The fake representative stays online with his victim as long as possible so that she does not call the police or relatives before they withdraw the money