Barrie police have issued a warning to local residents after noticing an increase in two different scams in the community.
The first scheme is called the well-known grandparent scam, where a person claims the person's granddaughter has been involved in a crash and is in need of money for a lawyer, according to police.
The second is dubbed the bank-investigator scam. It sees the fraudster call the victim acting as an employee of a bank and claims that a criminal has compromised their bank account.
In this case, the victim is told on the phone that their bank cards will all need to be replaced. The scammer then states the bank will be sending a courier or investigator to their home to collect their bank cards, PIN information and passwords.
After the call, the scammer arrives at the victim’s home acting as a bank employee or courier and collects all the bank cards and PIN information. They then use the cards and the private information to drain the victim’s account.
Police are reminding residents that banks will never ask for your private log in or PIN information, nor will they come to your home to exchange cards.
If there was an issue, police say a real bank official would instead ask you to come into your local branch for assistance.
Police are urging anyone who receives either of these types of calls to "just hang up.”
