How the ‘grandparent scam’ works, according to a B.C. government lawsuit

The B.C. government is going after a vehicle and cash seized from a Surrey man who allegedly scammed a grandmother out of thousands of dollars after claiming her grandson had been arrested.

A lawsuit filed last week by the director of civil forfeiture illustrates how the “grandparent scam” that has led to several recent police warnings works.

The director alleges that Daniel Guilherme and Amir Hooshmandi worked together to defraud the Vancouver grandmother out of $6,000 last September.

The woman got two phone calls on Sept. 26, the first purporting to be from her grandson saying that he had been arrested, and the second from someone posing as a Vancouver police officer who claimed their name was John Spring.

The fake officer gave the grandmother “instructions to put the $6,000 in a sealed envelope with her and her grandson’s first and last names written on the front,” the lawsuit said, adding that the caller advised her that someone would come to her house to collect the cash “at which time he would have her grandson released from custody.”