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It seems that more than the lawyers are now trying to contact residential school survivors to try and get their compensation payments before they are even available.

From http://www.portagedailygraphic.com/Top%20Stories/268750.html

Keeping compensation cheques out of scam artists’ hands - Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Man. Security Commission and RCMP create plan of attack - By Leighton Klassen - The Daily Graphic - Thursday November 16, 2006

Indian residential school survivors are being warned money-hungry scam artists are on the prowl for their federal compensation.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Manitoba Secur-ities Commission and RCMP detachments across the province are teaming up to keep federal cash in the pockets of its recipients.

“Our concern is that this is public knowledge and there’s a lot of money (distributed to survivors) and that’s when investment scam artists have their ears up,” said Ainsley Cunningham, education officer for Manitoba Securities Commission.

Jennifer Wood, residential schools policy analyst for AMC, said survivors are vulnerable.

“It’s important that the elders are not taken advantage of,” Wood said yesterday. “They’re very vulnerable people and naive .… They don’t know much about fraudulent measures.”

The fear stems from the amount of money Ottawa is distributing as compensation for the suffering experienced at residential schools.

On May 10, the federal Conservative government approved a proposal on a settlement of $10,000 per student, plus an additional $3,000 for each year spent in school. Currently, survivors 65 years old and over as of May 30, 2005, are receiving $8,000 as a first payment, and the remaining $2,000 as a second.

That includes Marina James, 69, who attended Portage Residential School from 1942-51. She said she’s not worried about being scammed because she has close family who watches over her, but she does fear for other survivors.

“It’s terrible that some people don’t realize that there is people like that who try and sell you different things and see how much money you have,” she said from her home on Dakota Tipi First Nation.

She is also aware of how the elderly are often taken advantage of.

“I know this one guy who had a car and he asked a couple of kids to get him stuff from the store,” she explained, adding the man lived alone. “They took off with his money and car.”

The chief of Dakota Plains First Nation, a reserve about 30 kilometres southwest of Portage, is also a residential school survivor. Orville Smoke attended Portage Residential School in 1962. He said he’s well-educated about scams, but fears for the six elderly survivors living on the reserve.

“I’m going to be making an effort to make sure to look out for the elders,” he said yesterday.

Wood said AMC and the securities commission will collaboratively develop information packages that will be distributed to all First Nations.

The brochures, which will likely be ready by the end of the month, will include information on the characteristics of scam artists’ tactics such as the absence of documents or paperwork or an offering of low rates at a high return.

“It will be basic protection messages,” Cunningham said.
And time is of the essence. Wood expects the federal government will approve payments for all ages of residential school survivors, through the common experience payment, later this month. That means a lot of people will be receiving a lot of money.

“It’s for everyone and that’s why this is important,” she said. “There’s 80,000 survivors across Canada.”

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From http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2006/11/15/school-scam.html?ref=rss

Residential schools' ex-students get help against scams - November 15, 2006

Winnipeg RCMP and the Manitoba Securities Commission are joining native leaders to help prevent former residential school students from getting scammed out of thousands of dollars in federal compensation.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said Tuesday it welcomes the expertise of both groups as students of residential schools wait to receive payments ranging from $25,000 to more than $250,000.

"Then we have a collective effort, and that's what we want," said Jennifer Wood, the assembly's residential school compensation co-ordinator.

"We want to show it's a concern on every level because it is out to very fragile individuals, the elders."

"History in the past has shown that scam artists, they don't take very long figuring out who's getting money," said Cpl. Sue Downs of the RCMP's commercial crimes unit in Winnipeg.

"Hurricane Katrina, the flood of '97 here in Manitoba … it seems that scam artists target communities they know that are getting large sums of money."

Downs said she hopes to arrange antifraud workshops on reserves. As well, the assembly will include material from the RCMP and the commission in any information packages it sends out.

Operations already popping up: former student
Former student Ray Mason said he has already heard of one new company based in Edmonton that offers to lend money, with interest, to former students who are expecting large compensation payments.

Mason, chairman of Spirit Wind, a Manitoba-based organization of residential school survivors, said he expects such a company to charge large amounts of interest as students wait months for their cheques.

"That person could lose a good chunk of their compensation claim," Mason said.

As well, he fears the number of similar operators will only grow.

Wood said the large settlements many elderly former students will receive can make them prime targets for scam artists.

"You know, they're not street smart, they're not out here in Winnipeg [or] living in an urban centre. They're living in a community, and they have probably been for most of their lives. The elders are a very vulnerable targeted group of people," she said.

Earlier this fall, former students gave their input on the proposed $1.9-billion federal compensation package in hearings held across Canada, including one in Winnipeg.

If approved, the proposed package would compensate up to 80,000 former students for abuse suffered in the schools and for their loss of language and culture.

Under the proposed settlement package, which was approved by the Conservative government in May, any former student is offered a lump sum of $10,000, plus $3,000 for each year spent in the schools. Former students can seek more compensation if they can prove sexual or physical abuse.