Lottery scam harrassment advice needed.

[ChristmasElf]

My friend's mom "won" $2.5 and a Mercedes in a lottery scam. She got a phone call (home) advising her of her win and asking for money to be wired to cover taxes or something. Well, she knew it was a scam and tried to just put them off. They got her cell number (which is a line on her daughter's acct not even in HER name) and have been calling both lines.

To sum it up they have threatened to max one of her CC's claiming to have the number. They claim to be with the secret service and are going to arrest her for not sending the money and the latest is they threatened to come kill her husband.

The local police have been notified but don't seem to be interested. The phone company (for whom the mom works BTW) doesn't seem interested meanwhile the harrassment continues and is escalating.

Anyone have any experience with these people? Any advice as to how to get them to leave her alone? She hasn't given them any money so it's not as if they see her as an easy mark. This has been going on for a week now. I would have thought they would move on to easier prey but they don't seem to be. We have thought it might be someone she knows but can't imagine anyone going this far either.

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

I would say there are several things she can do.

1. She can call her cell phone company and ask them to change her cell phone number as someone is pestering her with harrassing calls.

2. when the number pops up as the number of the harrasing callers, she can have someone else answer the phone with "Homicide, Tank Miller" or whatever name you think sounds tough enough, then maybe the caller would think the calls had been reported to police. (Homicide sounds the most serious if you ask me-versus Civil Complaints or Burglary)

3. Ignore them altogether-eventually they will move on to someone else.