my mom and dad got a scam phone call--good thing they,re both sharp

[55dznypal]

my mom gets a call and the caller is a young adult in their 20s and says

hi grandma--this is your oldest grandson--Im in Canada for a wedding and got in a car accident--the other car hit me--I only had 2 beers but Im being held in jail and I need $2000 could you wire me the money?

I know you wont say anything -I wont want the rest of the family to know!!

At first it got my mom thinking since I have a son thats 28 thats her oldest grandson--she says this doesnt sound like you Jason (now they have a name)

he says the air bag opened and I have a swollen mouth so its hard to talk.

He then puts someone else on the phone who says hes a sargeant-my mom is now getting her suspiuos(SP?) up and says well you know Jason is a police officer (my son is a police officer) but she tried to trip them up

the sargeant says yes we know that--thats why we're sitting with him and hes not locked up--we look out for our own

next they pass the phone to a so called attorney who tells my mom where to wire the money to it was an adress in Canada and they would call back in an hour--my mom gets off the phone and calls the police

someone is going to call her back!!!---I missed this on the news but there ia scam where grandparents (older people) are getting calls from their "grandchildren"

she called my son so when he called her back he goes hi grandma this is Jason

my mom says whats your wife"s name!!!! My DDIL filled in my son on what my mom was calling about

anyways please be careful especially for those of us with grandchildren

I had to sing up for a new account for some reason I couldnt post before my old name was dznypal

thanks for listening

 

[LuvCuteBoys]

This has been happening a LOT. I've read about similar stories in the newspaper. Scary.

 

[Rora]

Good thing your mom is sharp!! These scams seem so ridiculous!! I seriously hope people are made aware of this and don't get tricked into these people's nasty scam.

 

[MM27]

This happened to a family I know recently too. The person that called said that he didn't want his mom and dad to find out. So the grandfather called his other daughter (the one that I know) and she originally wasn't going to call her sister because she wanted to honor her nephews wishes. She actually took a day off of work, contacted an attorney and was getting really scared for her nephew. The attorney is the one that clued her in to the scam. She called her sister and her nephew was home. He had never been to Canada and didn't have plans to go. I googled it after that and it's sad how many stories there are and how much money some people have lost because of these people.

 

[cepmom]

this happened to my friend's parent's also....their "grandson" called also was in "Canada" needed money for something etc, etc. My friend's father actually went to the bank to get the money when the mother decided it was too suspicious and called him home. they called the police etc. but I'm not sure if they were able to get anymore information on the scammer. It's scary!

 

[eduk8r26]

I read somewhere that if you ever get a call like that, ask the person a question that only they would know the answer to, like someone's birthday or anniversary or something like that.