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Joined: Dec 2008
A letter in the HTH today detailed an occurrence of the above scam in Hilo, where a young man calls up a senior citizen and claims to be their grandson, in trouble, in a foreign place (often Canada) and they need money now in order to pay a lawyer/ post bail. "And please don't tell mom or dad, they'll kill me."
They may try again locally, don't fall for it! Never send money via Western Union / Moneygram etc unless you're 100% certain it's legitimate. Get confirmation from someone you know.
Posts: 1,163
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In a previous life, I did work with Verizon and AARP to reduce telemarketing fraud against seniors. The stories I heard would break your heart - and the victims frequently included physicians, lawyers, accountants and other folks who you wouldn't think could get taken by these crooks. I've heard surveillance tapes that were so convincing, I was almost ready to open my own wallet.
FYI, these crooks often sell their prospect lists to each other, just like legitimate telemarketers. So once crook "A" has conned grandma out of most of her savings, crook "B" calls grandma next. "B" tells grandma "I work for a private investigator,and we just helped someone else recover money that was stolen from them. In the course of our investigation, we discovered that the same crook took your money (citing the exact amount that grandma lost). We want to help you recover it before your children learn how you were taken advantage of. If you'll send me $XXXX to get the investigation underway, we can get your money back and no one will be the wiser.." If grandma is hesitant, the crook turns up the heat: "Do you want your kids to know what you did to their inheritance? They'll think you're not able to handle your own affairs and they'll put you in a nursing home..is that what you want???" Next thing you know, grandma is in tears and there is a messenger at her front door picking up a wad of cash.
There is a special place in hell for these crooks...
