KITCHENER -- A Guelph man was almost duped out of more than $10,000 after becoming the victim of phone fraud.
Police say the victim, 62, received a call last week from someone pretending to work for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The caller told the man that the RCMP was investigating a bank for counterfeit money.
After being sent a fake screenshot of $1,000 being deposited into his bank account, the victim then bought $500 worth of gift cards from a convenience store and sent the codes to the suspect.
This happened twice more for an additional $2,000 worth of gift cards.
Police say the victim was then directed to withdraw $8,800 from his bank account, place it in a magazine in a parcel and send it to a fake RCMP lab.
He complied.
The man was sent to buy another round of gift cards, but a store employee stopped him and told him that it was probably fraud.
The victim was able to get in touch with his bank to have his accounts frozen and stop the delivery of the package.
He then notified the Guelph Police Service, who began investigating.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police.
