Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 21 Jun, 2023 10:14 AM
Mounties in Metro Vancouver have issued a warning about what they describe as a sophisticated new "grandparent scam."
Richmond -R-C-M-P say the scam -- in which fraudsters try to convince seniors that a loved one is in trouble and needs money -- has been around for years.
But recently they say scammers have started using artificial intelligence and digital manipulation to alter the voice in the phone call in order to sound more authentic.
The Mounties are urging people never to provide their personal, banking or credit card information over the phone.
Gagandeep Singh, 21, was swarmed and beaten near Highway 97 and McCurdy Road in Kelowna after he got off a transit bus on March 17, CTV News reported. Gagandeep was heading home after grocery shopping when he encountered a group of young boys, between 12 and 15 years-old on the bus.
The immigration minister anticipates the one-click option would only be in effect as long as the government is swamped with backlogged citizenship applications. But the Conservative party's immigration critic worries it would "cheapen" an otherwise special moment for newcomers.
A decision dated Thursday says the six-year sentence handed to Corey Hurren in March 2021, less a year for the time he spent in custody before his sentencing, was "entirely fit." Hurren, a sausage-maker who served with the military's Canadian Rangers, had pleaded guilty to seven weapons charges and one mischief charge for his actions on the morning of July 2, 2020.
Allen Brooks was convicted by a provincial court judge in 2020 for sexual assaults that allegedly happened in 1990 and 1997 while he was working as an X-ray technician at a hospital in Maple Ridge. Brooks was acquitted of a third count of sexual assault that was alleged to have occurred in 2001.
Mounties say they were called to the parking lot of the Port Place Mall in the Vancouver Island city on Monday after the man was reportedly threatening people with a stick and the toy bow and arrow.
The report prompted Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim to say on Thursday that he was disgusted by its "insinuations," and he wouldn't be part of the conversation if he was Caucasian. Eby says the majority of tools to fight international interference are in federal hands, but he needs to know if there's any way for B.C. to "close any gaps" that the province may have available to it.