Spectrum the target of $40K scam that used senior lesbian couple story

An organization that protects 2SLGTQ+ people was the target of an emotional donation scam that used a story of an older queer couple to try to manipulate and play on the heartstrings of the non-profit.

It started a few weeks ago on Nov. 25 when Spectrum was contacted by a “95-year-old woman” letting them know her wife passed away and they were to be the beneficiary of an estate priced at $25,000.

The new Executive Director, Suzie Taka, who has only been at the job for a few months, knew something was wrong with the donation.

“We received the bank draft in the mail and instead of being for $25,000 it says $65,000 and it has a letter with it, that’s not on any letterhead saying it’s from the insurance company and at this point we were quite sure it was a scam,” said Taka.

If the organization deposited that bank draft into the account, Taka said it would have forced them to send back $40,000 – which is known as a wire transfer scam.

They reported the bank draft to regional police who didn’t perceive it as a hate crime. That scam is now being investigated.

“It felt gross, it was just weird to try to process that someone really thought about what we would find believable, and I think probably tried to use it in an emotionally manipulative way to get us to have a blind spot to what is happening,” added Taka.

“We know most of the older couples in town, there are just so few, because they didn’t have a chance to marry or have relationships because when they were younger, they would have had to hide themselves so it kind of really cut a layer of just grossness to it.”

Spectrum felt deliberately targeted by the scammers and the organization’s leaders are uncomfortable with how much effort was put in to try to steal money from their non-profit. Taka mentioned the fraudsters created multiple fake email accounts. They even sent them documents through FedEx.

Taka said they stopped correspondence with the scammers earlier this week, not wanting to keep sending them information.

She hopes it comes as a warning to other non-profits in the area.

“The way they were so specific about it just made it seem so much larger then if we got a random fraudulent email.”

This time of the year generally comes with lots of monetary donations being made to non-profits like Spectrum. Taka says they are extremely grateful for the “genuine donations” they do receive.

During a Police Services Board meeting earlier this week, regional police mentioned that fraud and online scams are on the rise in the region.