Anishinabek Employment and Training Services helps Elders stay safe against fraud

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — Anishinabek Employment and Training Services (AETS) held anti-fraud presentations by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS) during its Elder Conference 2025 on July 16 at the Prince Arthur Waterfront Hotel in Thunder Bay. AETS provides services for nine First Nations in the Northern Superior Region, including Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek, Michipicoten, Netmizaaggamig Nishnaabeg, Pays Plat, and Red Rock Indian Band.

“We certainly don’t want to see people being taken advantage of and with some of the changes with technology, everyone, including Elders, we need to ensure they are not being taken advantage of online,” says John DeGiacomo, executive director at AETS. “So this is something that will heighten the awareness and understanding and help Elders really age well at home. As part of how Anishinabek Employment and Training Services evolves, we need to obviously concentrate on those that need training, and it’s not just our youth, it’s the Elders that also need training to ensure that they can age well at home.”

Lorraine Keough, age well at home coordinator at AETS, says the conference was about providing Elders with information about financial literacy, online scams, anti-fraud education and being aware.

“So we brought in the OPP from the Indigenous Policing Bureau and their presentation is geared around the settlements that our communities have received,” Keough says. “I’m so glad [the participants were] bringing up their issues and their concerns and questions, and they’re interacting. Our presentation this afternoon is from Age Friendly Thunder Bay, and it’s a detective with the Thunder Bay Police Service — it’s specifically about Elder Abuse Prevention because it goes hand-in-hand with fraud, scamming.”

Acting Sergeant Craig Nelson, with the OPP Indigenous Policing Bureau, delivered a Canadian Anti-Fraud Awareness presentation during the morning session.

“The key points were education on protecting themselves from becoming victims of fraud, whether it be online, marketing, phone messaging, phone calls and wrongful investments, so just protecting our Elders from becoming victims,” Nelson says. “[There was] a lot of great conversation back and forth between the Elders of our various First Nation communities in our region here, a lot of questions based on Facebook profiles and fraudulent ones and how to protect themselves from that. We had some comments on telemarketing calls that were fraudulent and how to protect themselves from that, we shared the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre contact information to make our Elders further aware of what resources are available to protect themselves from fraud and if they have been victims of fraud, and not only that but how to report these types of incidents to police if they become defrauded so proper investigations can follow.”

Detective Constable David Boer, with the TBPS, delivered an Elder Abuse Prevention presentation during the afternoon session.

“Just be careful about where you’re sending your money, fraud is easy to recognize — it’s somebody asking for your money,” Boer says. “There are so many scams out there — if you want to look over how many there are, go on the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre site. If you have any doubts, phone the police, we have no problems speaking with you and then giving you some advice. If your bank gives you some advice, follow it. Don’t live in fear, but just be careful.”

One of the participants, Linda,  shared her experience with having her card stolen from her purse.

“Somebody was tapping my card at certain areas that I don’t go to,” Linda says. “I got my money back, but still I’m not going to trust the tap.”

Pays Plat’s Raymond Goodchild, a former Pays Plat band councillor, says it was important for the Elders to learn about how to keep from being scammed and defrauded.

“We’re all eventually going to get some money and it’s a part of prevention to make sure we are aware of some of the frauds and who to contact if we ever get [defrauded] because there’s a lot of fraud people out there trying to scam us,” Goodchild says. “There was a lot of questions, I was happy with the questions and the scenarios they showed. I feel sorry for some of the stories … about some people who lost their houses, that’s hard, some people lost their whole bank [savings]. That’s hard when you get old when you’ve only got a certain kind of income.”