Our laundry room, just slightly larger than a closet, doubles as a mud room. With nine in our family, we have often asked too much of this tiny space. On a cold winter's day we all pile out of the nine-seat GMC Yukon, (which is far more spacious than the laundry room), and contort to offload boots, mitts, scarves, toques, and snow pants amidst the mops, brooms, and laundry. This exercise borders on the ridiculous, like trying to coax a litter of kittens into a pair of socks, (not that I have ever done that).
On Sundays, Grandma comes over. She is a tiny, sweet, quiet woman, of 89 years, who adores her grandkids, treasures her daughter, and tolerates her son-in-law, (usually). She also takes very seriously her sacred weekly gift of fresh baked apple pie. Out of deference (to either the pie or the person), the kids generously reverence her. Each week one of them helps her negotiate the pathway from the Yukon to the garage and then waits patiently while she gingerly climbs the stairs into the laundry room. She slowly slips off her shoes and then enduringly delivers the pie to the kitchen counter.
One wintery Sunday our weekly exercise in patience (waiting for Grandma in the laundry room) ran in to a glitch. At the peak bottleneck moment my 16 year-old son had a food emergency, and stepped on one of his sister's toes, elbowing another sister in the face as he scrambled through the vortex of flesh and onward to the fridge to fill his gaping void.
There was the predictable screaming, crying, forced apologies, negotiating, and eventually everything settled down in the kitchen. My son apologized to his sisters, and all spoke their regrets to grandma.
When the pie finally comes out the stories often begin. Grandma entertains us with tales of her life as a spoiled farm girl farm in Wales, biting her sister in the leg during a dispute over a dolly, taking shelter from bombing raids while serving in the Second World War as a nurse, sneaking out after curfew to go dancing with boys. She later pealed the bandages off the face of a blue-eyed soldier near the end of the conflict and immediately fell in love with him. They married, and moved to a remote trap line in northern Ontario, where she bore him thirteen children.
Yes, Grandma is much more than slow-moving pie machine. This brave woman has taken adventure by the ear and flung it over her shoulder like a sack of rags.
It is a disgusting truth that this sweet, trusting woman, who has lived so long and worked so hard is the typical target of securities fraud.
The B.C. Securities Commission warns of a number of scams which seniors and others have fallen victim to. While the products involved may sometimes be technically legal, the methods used to persuade investors are not. Some common scams include:
Exempt securities
Exempt securities, on their own, are not scams. They're sold by companies that are allowed to sell the securities without filing a prospectus. The scam usually starts when a person is pitched to invest in a promising business that is about to offer shares to the public. You may be told that this investment is only available to very wealthy people, but an exception can be made for you--all you have to do is sign some paperwork.
Forex scam
These scams often find their victims through ads placed in newspaper, on Internet sites or email. The ads look legitimate and offer you an exciting opportunity to invest your money on the foreign exchange (forex) market. What usually happens is that your money is not invested in anything, but simply is stolen by the scam artist.
Offshore investment
In this type of scam, the fraudster will promise you a high return from an investment in an offshore market. They will often tell you the investment is a great way to avoid taxes. What you may not know is that once your money is sent to another country and is in someone else's control, you may not be able to get it back.
A good dose of skepticism is a prescription worth adhering to. As Will Rogers said: "I am more concerned about the return OF my money than the return ON my money."
Mark Ryan is an advisor with RBC Wealth Management, Dominion Securities (member CIPF) and can be reached at [email protected].
