Police in Windsor are warning residents not to give out personal information about their finances after an elderly woman was swindled out of $4,800 in a telephone scam on Wednesday morning.
The woman, 87, received a call from a man claiming to work at her bank and who said he needed her help to catch a teller the bank suspected of theft, police said.
The man asked the woman to withdraw $4,800 from her account and meet him in front of a store at Central Mall on Tecumseh Road East, police said.
The woman complied, and said when she parked at the mall she was approached by a man who took her money and left.
Police describe the man as white, clean-shaven and between 30 and 40 years old.
Police are "actively out canvassing" for clues, according to Staff Sgt. Gerry Corriveau, who heads the financial crimes branch of the Windsor Police Service.
"We're looking for video images that any of the stores have captured," Corriveau said. "We're doing everything we can."
The woman will not be able to recoup her loss from the bank.
Bank employees are trained specially "to look out for this type of thing," Corriveau said. The woman's bank asked her repeatedly why she was withdrawing the money, and she told them she needed it for a family emergency, Corriveau said.
Corriveau calls this "an old scam."
"It rears its head every once in a while," he said.
