Jun 23, 2026
There’s a well-known and unwritten rule when it comes to dealing with those closest to us: if you get a call from a loved one who needs help, you act immediately. That’s exactly what an Ontario resident did earlier this month, and now he’s out $6,000.
Neil — who asked to have his identity concealed — told CTV News he received a call from someone who sounded exactly like his son Brian.
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“I thought I was talking to him because it was his voice,” he told the outlet.
The caller stated they were involved in a serious car accident and were facing charges for driving while using a cellphone. After the explanation, another voice took over, claiming to be his son’s lawyer, informing Neil he would need to pay $6,000 for Brian’s bail or he would have to spend the night behind bars.
Neil told the news outlet that the so-called lawyer said the courts were facing delays, so a rideshare driver would come by to pick up cash as payment. Like any good father wanting to help his son, Neil obliged, and gave the cash to an Uber driver.
The day after, Neil called his son to check in on him. The scam’s facade was broken when Brian had no idea what his father was talking about.
“I happened to call Brian the next day and asked how the meeting with the lawyer went and he said, ‘What lawyer’?” Neil explained, adding, “I said ‘What about the accident you were in?’ and he said ‘What accident?’ and then I realized I had been scammed.”
Emergency scams continue to ravage Canadians’ wallets
The emergency scam has been around for decades, and Neil is the latest victim. The playbook is simple: a fraudster pretends to be a family member or loved one in distress to elicit money from concerned family members. But the rise of AI voice-cloning technology and deepfakes have made the scam more potent, and more convincing.
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“The emergency scam is becoming a wildly popular way to scam,” cybersecurity expert Jane Arnett of Check Point Software told CTV News, saying, “What they do is get 10 seconds of anyone’s voice, then they can recreate it to sound exactly like the person.”
The history of emergency scams in Canada shows this type of fraud exploding in effectiveness in 2022 — the same year Open AI’s ChatGPT began its meteoric rise. According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) and the RCMP, emergency scams cost Canadians $2.4 million in 2021. However, in the following year, emergency fraud losses ballooned to $9.2 million.
While in recent years, the emergency/grandparent scam has become less popular among fraudsters, cases like Neil’s show how it is still around and just as successful if deployed correctly and convincingly.
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The rise of fraud across the nation
In Canada, financial fraud has been steadily rising since the pandemic years, with CAFC data revealing reported dollar losses at $107 million in 2020 and $704 million in 2025.
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But the organization notes that only five to ten percent of all fraud is reported; the dollar loss in Canada last year is likely much greater than $700 million.
Importantly, the CAFC’s annual report from 2024 reveals how while the number of fraud reports has been steadily declining since 2020, the dollar value of those successful attempts has spiked significantly, and AI may be to blame.
“AI has armed fraudsters with powerful tools to create highly convincing impersonations and deceptive marketing schemes. Canadians must stay vigilant,” Jeanne Pratt, Acting Commissioner of Competition, said in a news release.
How Canadians can protect themselves from AI-powered exploits
Emergency fraud is an emotionally powerful form of deceit that taps into our innate instincts to care for those closest to us.
Here are some steps to take if you experience a call like Neil’s and want to make sure you’re not being duped.
- Verify the story. Ask the caller details only a loved one would know, such as an important intimate memory, a special project only family members know about, or other lesser-known details a stranger would not have access to. Then, inquire further about the incident to see if there are any inconsistencies.
- Check in on the family member. The fastest way to confirm if an emergency is actually occurring is to call the family member in question or someone close to them. Do not rely on caller ID on your phone, as scammers can easily change the name that appears when they call — a process known as caller ID spoofing. Always hear the story on your own terms before making a decision.
- Be vigilant about untraceable forms of payment. Usually, if a caller is asking you to provide payment in a form that is not easily traceable (e.g. wire transfers, crypto payments, gift cards, cash pickup) you should immediately be suspicious — especially if the caller is posing as a legal professional or government official.
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Brett Surbey is a corporate paralegal with KMSC Law LLP and freelance writer who has written for Yahoo Finance Canada, Success Magazine, Publishers Weekly, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes Advisor and multiple academic journals. He and his family live in northern Alberta, Canada.
