Scammers Pretending to Be Grandchildren Are Robbing the Elderly

BY RACHEL BROWNE

ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL BYERS

September 24, 2026

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has been receiving reports about grandparent scams since at least 2008, but in the past few years, the scale and scope of these kinds of cons have expanded at an alarming rate across North America. “A lot of the threats have become social engineering threats,” says Macaulee Cassaday, co-founder and program director of the Canadian nonprofit Cyber-Seniors, which provides free tech support and training for seniors. These are threats that exploit psychology rather than computer software. Whereas previous scams used to be more easily identified through bad grammar in an email or other visual cues, grandparent scams are deeply elaborate in their creation and manipulation. “You have to look for the tactics the scammers are using,” Cassaday says, “rather than these outright signs.”

Full article at https://thewalrus.ca/grandparent-scam/