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Fraudster posing as local mayors

Police advise businesses to beware of suspect phone calls

By Alison Taylor

A con man is at work in the corridor and beyond, assuming the identity of local mayors in an attempt to swindle businesses out of money.

Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed and Squamish Mayor Ian Sutherland have both been the victims of misrepresentation. The most recent case involves a fraudulent phone call to a Richmond business in which a man posing as Melamed asked for money and services to deal with a family crisis.

The mayor never made that call, nor would he dream of abusing his position in that way, he said.

“Not only does it not look well on me but it doesn’t look well on the resort to have the mayor behaving in this way,” said a concerned Melamed this week. “I go out of my way not to try and take advantage of my position.”

This is the second time in six months there have been reports of fraudulent phone calls involving Melamed’s name.

He said, however, there is some comfort in knowing he hasn’t been singled out, that other high profile people have been targeted too, including Squamish Mayor Ian Sutherland.

There the con was similar. The fraudster tried to get two Squamish businesses to send money to a Money Mart to help the so-called mayor out of a bind.

Both business owners called city hall to confirm the story, where it proved false.

“More than anything else I think the first thing you do is you worry that people who are trying to help out may lose money,” said Sutherland. “I think that people’s natural tendency is to help out anybody in times of need.”

That’s all part of the game. Cpl. Dave Ritchie, of the Squamish RCMP detachment, said the con is to appeal to people’s good-hearted natures.

“He plays on emotions of people, uses a high profile person in the community and someone who’s well known and tries to get people to donate or give,” said Ritchie.

“Our investigation leads us to a person of interest who has done this in Victoria with the mayor, (and) other officials in Maple Ridge, Langley, Coquitlam area.”

Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe fell victim to the scam this year after receiving a phone call from someone claiming to be Chief Andy Thomas of the Esquimalt First Nation. After hearing that one of the chief’s grandchildren died in a tragic accident, Lowe wired more than $400 to a payday loans outlet in downtown Vancouver.

Chief Thomas never made that call.

Similarly, the con man called a Victoria area hotel and businesses this time impersonating Mayor Lowe, again asking for money for a family tragedy,

The Empress Hotel sent $500.

At the time police said there were more than two dozen reports of the fraud and as much as $25,000 had been given out to the fraudster.

To Det. Dan Cottingham in the Victoria police financial crime division the recent attempted con in the corridor sounds like the same con artist and his cronies at work.

“It would be my guess that the same individual is responsible because it sounds identical to what’s been going on all over the province,” he said.

The money is always collected in the Lower Mainland at different money lending/payday loan establishments.

“It rears it’s ugly head for a while, then goes away and then he seems to start up somewhere else,” added the Victoria detective.

The con doesn’t come as a surprise to Sheila Charneski, president of the Vancouver branch of the Better Business Bureau. Her most important piece of advice to businesses is to train their staff.

“(Business owners have to) make sure that their staff are aware that these kinds of things happen… and that people are not always who they say they are,” said Charneski.

The con involving the high profile community members is similar to bogus charities calling people and businesses looking for money.

The key, Charneski said, is to ask questions, look for additional information and trust your intuition if the request, such as a mayor running out of money and calling a business to wire funds to a Money Mart, seems a little odd.

“You have to ask lots of questions and really drill down ’til they run out of answers… and they will,” she said,

Use your common sense too. Why would a mayor call a business with cap in hand to ask for money, she asked.

Police also caution people to be aware and careful about what they say over the phone.

“If you don’t feel good about it and it’s just too good to be true… check it out before you commit to anything and disclose any of your private information,” said Cpl. Ritchie.

The sad thing said Sutherland is that one day someone may be in a bind and won’t get help because of the level of suspicion created by the fraudster.

He said: “Ninety-nine per cent of people are good folks and want to do the right thing and it’s that 1 per cent that makes us all think twice, unfortunately.”