Phone scam targeting Chinese in Ottawa

The Ottawa Police Service is warning about strange phone calls that sound like robo-calls, but the person on the other end of the phone is speaking Mandarin.

Officers said it's likely connected to a scam targeting the Chinese community, and involves defrauding people here, and back in China.

Investigators with the fraud unit explained that a message in Mandarin appears to come from the Chinese consulate in Ottawa and informs the victim they are implicated in a crime in China and need to wire money to resolve it.

In some cases, the victim is also told to go into hiding to “avoid arrest by Canadian police,” and told not to answer their phone.

Then, family members in China are contacted, saying their loved-one in Canada has been kidnapped, and they need to send money.

Police said this is a version of a scam that cropped up in British Columbia last year, and earlier this year in Toronto, targeting Chinese university students.