Canada Journal – News of the World Articles and videos to bring you the biggest Canadian news stories from across the country every day
A Canadian woman turned the tables on phone scammers with a brilliant acting performance.
Dawn Belmonte got a voicemail from an 866 number known to be used by scammers, so she called back. The scammers told her she owed $2,500 or would face arrest.
Belmonte posted a video she recorded of a telephone scammer attempting to con her. Within four minutes of the conversation, Belmonte turned the tables and convinced the fraudulent caller to confess that he was attempting to scam her. She posted the conversation to YouTube and Facebook.
As it happened, Belmonte received a voice message from someone pretending to work for the Canada Revenue Agency who insisted that she owed money which must be repaid. The scammer threatened her with arrest if she did not pay her dues.
Instead of ignoring the annoying voicemail, Belmonte decided to call the number back and see if she could show the CRA con artist how two could play his game.
Belmonte told CBC, “He was telling me I should pawn things and I should borrow money and asked if I had anything to sell because I was going to go to jail.” She began to cry over the phone, telling the caller an invented story about how her husband was in jail for tax evasion and hung up.
Within two minutes, the CRA conman called her back and told her that she need only pay a small portion. That’s when she decided to start recording the call.
In the video, the fraudster can be heard saying, “No need to cry, do not worry about anything because what I have told you is totally wrong, this is a scam and I was just trying to take money out of you, okay?” Belmonte said to CBC she was surprised how easily the scammer gave in.
She sent the video to the York Police Department for further investigation, but an officer told her there was nothing they could do since the caller’s location was undisclosed.
Although there isn’t much that can be done in this situation, the best thing to do, in Belmonte’s case, was done, according to the police. By posting the video, she is helping raise awareness of the common scam that is circulating in Canada at the moment.
Agencies/Canadajournal
