A Quebec man who attempted to swindle a Gravenhurst senior found himself in front of a judge recently.
Reda Ahaquaze, 21, pled guilty to fraud under $5,000 in a Bracebridge courtroom recently.
Court heard that on May 2, 2023, the OPP received a call from a Gravenhurst senior citizen saying that he suspected he was being conned as part of a so-called “grandparent’s scam.” The victim said someone had called him claiming to be his grandson and saying he needed $7,100 to get bailed out of jail. The scammer said he would send a courier to pick up the cash.
The victim went to the bank and withdrew the cash but became suspicious and called the police who were waiting for the scammer, Ahaquaze, when he arrived.
When the police arrested Ahaquaze, they found three envelopes of cash on his person. One contained $13,860 CDN, one containerized $700 US, and the third contained $240 in Euros.
Through an investigation, the police uncovered that Ahaquaze had scammed an Orillia senior earlier that same day. He had called the victim in Orillia, impersonating his grandson and claiming that he had been in a car accident and injured a pregnant woman. He passed through the phone to another man who claimed to be a lawyer and advised the victim to withdraw $6,000. Ahaquaze, again posing as a courier, arrived at the Orillia residence and relieved the man of the cash. He was identified later via a doorbell camera.
It was unclear where the remainder of the money had come from.
Ahaquaze was set to be sentenced to six months of house arrest and two months under curfew but there was some confusion as to jurisdiction and the sentencing was postponed.
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Bill Beatty says
Wow ,he can stay at home make phone calls to Seniors and scam away to his hearts content while sending a flunky to pick up the cash .
Dougie , get those spartan detention centre’s built now to house this trash .
HAROLYN HUSSAIN says
RIGHT ON Bill Beatty !!!
Brian Tapley says
Ahh the internet!
When it started it was hyped as a quick and easy way to keep in touch, run your business, do your banking and a myriad of other things. The proverbial “Information age” arrived at last.
For a brief period it was sort of like this.
But now.
Believe nothing you see or hear until you can somehow prove it to be true.
Assume that anything you put on the internet, no matter what the keeper of the information might claim, will ultimately become public knowledge.
Remember that anything you post on line, no matter what you might do afterwards, will exist on line forever somewhere.
Remember also that there are legions of scammers out there that are just waiting to take any information they can find out about you and use it to part you from your money. They invent new ways of doing this faster than any agency like OPP, FBI, CSIS or whatever can even learn to spell their names.
So what have we managed.?
We have created a uniquely polarized and fractious society. Something we have never seen to this extent before before. A place where fact, fiction and fantasy all sort of intermingle together and voila! Out pops a guy like Trump, a total scum bag of an idiot and he is adored so much he will become President of the USA again, supposedly one of the most sophisticated countries on the planet. ( I say supposedly as their behavior sort of demonstrates that maybe they are not actually as smart as we thought.)
We are now fearful that our basic election process is being controlled by someone in a far off totalitarian country. We live in fear of scams and virus attacks, both in our bodies and in our computers.
Is this really progress? Think about this when you prepare to vote next time, assuming you do.
Dennis Wilks says
This comment is on the ” Quebec man convicted in Gravenhurst grandparent scam–
Obviously I do not know all the facts but will comment on the ones pointed out in this Doppler report as follows
1: why fraud under $5000 when the article indicated $7100 and likely more ?
2: why 6 months of house arrest ( a slap on the wrist ) instead of a year in jail ?
3: jurisdiction—why is that a question if the crime / fraud was committed in Ontario ?