A Manitoba grandmother is sharing her story in hopes of warning others after nearly falling victim to a convincing phone scam involving a fake emergency call from someone pretending to be her grandson.
Anne Emberly says she received a call that sounded alarmingly real. The voice on the other end claimed to be her grandson, saying he had been in a car accident and was now in jail.
“Apparently according to the call, he had gone out with a friend," Emberly recalls. “His friend had been drinking too much that he couldn't drive himself home. So my grandson took him home.”
The grandparent from the Portage area says the caller went on to claim that her grandson rear-ended another vehicle while checking his GPS and was now under arrest along with his friend. He then asked for bail money.
Red flags began to appear
Despite the emotional appeal and the familiar-sounding voice, Emberly quickly became suspicious.
“My sister-in-law a couple of years ago had basically the same kind of call,” she says. “So I said it's sort of starting to sound like... and that was as far as I got and they hung up.”
Emberly says she regularly receives suspicious calls, but this was the first time someone used the “grandparent scam” on her.
She verified the story
After the call ended, she did what police often advise—she checked in with her actual grandson.
“I phoned my grandson and I asked him how he was enjoying jail,” she says with a laugh. “He laughed at me.”
She admits the voice on the phone was very convincing.
“Yes, it did,” Emberly says, when asked if it really sounded like her grandson. “Nowadays, it can sound pretty real.”
Common scam across Manitoba
Police say scams like this are widespread and often target seniors across the province. The “grandparent scam” involves fraudsters calling an older adult pretending to be a grandchild in distress—often claiming there has been an accident, an arrest, or medical emergency—and then pressuring the person for money.
Emberly hopes her story will remind others to think twice before reacting emotionally to calls involving family emergencies.
Police encourage anyone who receives a suspicious call like this to hang up, verify the story with a trusted family member, and report the incident to local authorities.
-Written with files from Cory Knutt.