Chilliwack senior defrauded out of $8,800 in bail scam phone call

“I’m telling you, he was a pro,” Dukelow said over the phone Friday afternoon. “It’s too bad that he can’t put that talent to good use. He said my grandson Kyle had been in a car accident and was in jail, and that they needed that money to bail him out. The caller told me Kyle will phone you when he gets out. He said Kyle had his nose broken and it was all packed up. This went on pretty well all the morning (Thursday).”

By about noon on Thursday, Dukelow had prepared an envelope containing $8,800 to give to a person in the lobby of her residential complex. That’s when a male she describes as 5’9″ tall, with a slim build and brown shoulder-length hair in his early 20s, met her in the lobby. The entrance was open due to a plumber doing work in her building. The meeting with the unknown male, who was standing in the doorway, lasted only seconds.

“He just said the name he was using, which was Eric Fields,” said Dukelow, who handed the man the envelope containing $8,800. “I told him this had better not damn well be a scam. He gave me the so-called case number. I told I’d hunt him down [if it were a scam], and I am trying to now.”

Dukelow phoned a number in reference to the so-called case number. She reached an answering service, and after waiting a bit and phoning again, there was no answer. This occurred after she gave gave “Eric Fields” the envelope.

Dukelow says there are no surveillance cameras in the entrance to her building.

“I thought if I get his description out there, it might deter someone from giving to this guy,” she said.

Dukelow has already notified Chilliwack RCMP about the fraudster who took everything she had. She says she takes full responsibility for what happened.

“It’s my own damn fault for being so naive,” Dukelow said. “If they hadn’t mentioned Kyle’s name, I’d never have given them the money. I know there are people out there that were taken for a lot more, but that’s all I had. I was trying to save up for my funeral so my kids didn’t have to pay for it.”

She suspects that she may have been contacted after someone got into her grandson’s phone.

“Apparently the scammers hit somebody a couple roads from here,” said Dukelow, who lives near Safeway in Sardis. “Police say they are working this area of town. This is why I thought if I could get it out there, the description of the kid that picked up the envelope, they’d be reluctant to give money to them. When my grandson said someone had entered his cell phone, and my son said that someone was trying to get into his computer, to me, there’s a connection.”

by Mike Vanden Bosch

Chilliwack senior defrauded out of $8,800 in bail scam phone call

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