Fire dept. warns of fraudster

Photo: Castanet Staff

The Osoyoos Fire Department is warning the public of a potential scammer impersonating one of their members asking for money. 

Fire chief Ryan McCaskill said the person has allegedly been placing phone calls to private residences. 

"I had a call Wednesday from a lady saying that a member of our department reached out to her looking for cash donations or a credit card number, type of thing," McCaskill said. "When she wasn't willing to give a donation, they were quite pushy about it."

The woman thought it was odd, and called the fire department to check. McCaskill told her it definitely wan't a member of his department. 

He then posted on the department's Facebook page to let the public know.

"We don't call. If we're looking for donations we come to your place of business not your house, donations are from businesses and it's for charities," McCaskill said. "We come in uniform, we come with a letter, it's not phone calls asking for money."

The nearby Oliver Fire Department also shared the warning on Facebook.