Scam phone call just received—be aware!

[Quixote]

We just received a phone call purportedly from our grandson having been in an auto accident in which a six-month pregnant woman ran a red light, and he hit her. He was treated for a broken nose and a lip requiring six stitches, then was arrested for reckless driving. His lawyer, John Steinberg, would contact us with pertinent information, and he would likely have to post a bond to get out of jail. He also gave us a case number: C749882651.He sniveled and cried through the whole conversation, perhaps in an effort to make his voice less recognizable.

He ignored questions of specifics that we posed to him: 'Where are you now?' 'In what hospital were you treated?' When it reached the point of 'Could we keep this between us?' we responded 'No, don't think so.' Then came his moment of belligerence: 'Why not?' We allowed the question to hang, and after a few seconds he hung up. Caller ID gave us the number from which he was calling: 352-392-5286.

We promptly called the Sheriff's Office, from which we were transferred to a unit that handles specifically scammers trying to scam other individuals. We're waiting for a callback from them; in the meantime, we felt it important enough to post on ToTV.

[Topspinmo]

When last time heard scammer being arrested? I’m surprised they caught Bernie Madoff.

Sadly, but in the tech age it best not answer phone or emails unless you know exactly who they are from. If I don’t recognize the call or email I don’t answer and email going in trash.

[Keefelane66]

Some people fall for anything, how much in gift cards did he request you buy. I wonder if you are on Facebook with all your family details?

[Bogie Shooter]

This one of the oldest scams. They got you.

[Stu from NYC]

Have not got that one for a few years. Still get lots of others.

Not to mention they are raising money to help sheriff dept. Ask percentage goes to help and they have no clue.

[retiredguy123]

I agree with everything the OP did, except calling the Sheriff. The Sheriff can't do anything to the scammers.

[Babubhat]

Block all numbers not in your contact list. Let the rest of people leave a message

[retiredguy123]

Block all numbers not in your contact list. Let the rest of people leave a message
I agree, but you can't literally block every number in the world. But, you can turn on your "do not disturb" setting and allow an exception for calls on your contacts list.

[Michael G.]

What I don't understand, I have a block scam calls app on my cellphone it's works great, but,
why does my phone ring telling me it's "It's a scam call??"

My wife is constantly running to look who's calling, (thinks someone we know is calling) then complains about all the scam calls

[retiredguy123]

What I don't understand, I have a block scam calls app on my cellphone it's works great, but,
why does my phone ring telling me it's "It's a scam call??"

My wife is constantly running to look who's calling, (thinks someone we know is calling) then complains about all the scam calls
Because your block spam call app doesn't work great. Your phone should not ring when you get a spam call. In fact, the "potential spam" message may be from your phone provider, not from the spam app at all.

[Number 10 GI]

What I don't understand, I have a block scam calls app on my cellphone it's works great, but,
why does my phone ring telling me it's "It's a scam call??"

My wife is constantly running to look who's calling, (thinks someone we know is calling) then complains about all the scam calls

A few years back I got a call from "Microsoft" informing me that my computer had a virus and that the caller could take care of it for me, for a price naturally. I called him every vulgar name in the book, questioned his parentage, and told him to do a physically impossible act to himself. He was so mad, spitting, sputtering and unable to form a coherent sentence when I hung up on him. It was so much fun!!

[jimbomaybe]

When last time heard scammer being arrested? I’m surprised they caught Bernie Madoff.

Sadly, but in the tech age it best not answer phone or emails unless you know exactly who they are from. If I don’t recognize the call or email I don’t answer and email going in trash.
I talk to these people , I have given out so many fake SS# and credit card# I can't remember them all

[raney3099]

How did you not know that wasn’t your grandson?

[Petersweeney]

Why didn’t you ask him his mothers maiden name, what city was he born and the name of his first pet?

[NoMo50]

Scams like this continue to pop up because they work. People do fall for this stuff.

[Bogie Shooter]

Why didn’t you ask him his mothers maiden name, what city was he born and the name of his first pet?

Or ask if still has his brother Carls phone number. Carl does not exist. Trap!

[ThirdOfFive]

Scams like this continue to pop up because they work. People do fall for this stuff.
True.

Old people are gullible, especially when the inevitable processes of age starts to dull the ol' mental processes.

[retiredguy123]

Or ask if still has his brother Carls phone number. Carl does not exist. Trap!
That would be dishonest.

[Bill14564]

Why didn’t you ask him his mothers maiden name, what city was he born and the name of his first pet?

The scam works because in the heat of the moment, when you get an urgent call from a grandson who is clearly distressed, you forget about everything else and think only of helping the child. Later, when the emergency has passed, you think about all these things you should have done.

- Injured child
- Child in custody
- Computer virus currently destroying your computer
- Police on the way to your house to arrest you
- IRS freezing your Social Security number
- and several more things designed to scare you into reacting first without thinking

[Pres1939]

I agree with everything the OP did, except calling the Sheriff. The Sheriff can't do anything to the scammers.


I disagree that the Sheriff cannot help. Everyone of these I get, I forward to “askdoj@usdoj.gov”.
If we all bombard the DOJ and our State AG, hopefully, they will get tired of the messages and finally get off their duff and do something about it. We have a lot of smart IT people in this country. Put them to work to stop these scammers!!

[Stu from NYC]

On the car warranty ones ask for a price for our lamborghini or if bored and a female ask what they are wearing. They do get flustered and that is why i do it.

[Davonu]

Just don’t answer any call unless you know who the caller is. Any legitimate caller will leave a message. Then you can evaluate the message to decide if a return call is warranted.

[B-flat]

Scams like this continue to pop up because they work. People do fall for this stuff.

My late father-in-law's friend got a similar call. He went to Western Union/Wal-Mart to send the cash, if it weren't for the manager of the Wal-Mart store talking him out of it he would have sent the money. My father-in-law's friend argued with the manager "I know it's my grandson." The manger told him to call the grandson's mother, when he did he discovered his grandson was not in Canada under arrest as the scammer on the phone told him but he was at his part-time job at a pizza restaurant.

Yup, people do fall for this stuff.

[Djean1981]

Yep. It can be dangerous putting personal info on social media. If you must be on it, don't use a name matchable to your home or utility records. Also, tagging relatives helps identify you, by relationship..

[retiredguy123]

I disagree that the Sheriff cannot help. Everyone of these I get, I forward to “askdoj@usdoj.gov”.
If we all bombard the DOJ and our State AG, hopefully, they will get tired of the messages and finally get off their duff and do something about it. We have a lot of smart IT people in this country. Put them to work to stop these scammers!!
So, you think that the people in Government don't already know about the scammers, and sending messages to them will cause them to solve the problem? It is more likely that they will just use the messages as justification to increase their budget. But, in this case, the scammer was probably thousands of miles away from The Villages and the Sheriff has no jurisdiction outside of the county to do anything, even if he wanted to. The scammer may have not even been in the U.S.

I agree that we have a lot of good IT people. And, I think that the cell phone providers could easily stop the scammers by monitoring their phone usage and limiting the number of calls made from a single source. But, they will not do it because they are making money on the scammer calls. The Government has been saying for years that they are working to fix the problem, but, I think they are lying.

[DonnaNi4os]

We just received a phone call purportedly from our grandson having been in an auto accident in which a six-month pregnant woman ran a red light, and he hit her. He was treated for a broken nose and a lip requiring six stitches, then was arrested for reckless driving. His lawyer, John Steinberg, would contact us with pertinent information, and he would likely have to post a bond to get out of jail. He also gave us a case number: C749882651.He sniveled and cried through the whole conversation, perhaps in an effort to make his voice less recognizable.

He ignored questions of specifics that we posed to him: 'Where are you now?' 'In what hospital were you treated?' When it reached the point of 'Could we keep this between us?' we responded 'No, don't think so.' Then came his moment of belligerence: 'Why not?' We allowed the question to hang, and after a few seconds he hung up. Caller ID gave us the number from which he was calling: 352-392-5286.

We promptly called the Sheriff's Office, from which we were transferred to a unit that handles specifically scammers trying to scam other individuals. We're waiting for a callback from them; in the meantime, we felt it important enough to post on ToTV.

I have received more than one call that began with “hi grandma”. Even though I have 8 grandkids I respond with “you have the wrong number, I don’t have any grandchildren “. That’s usually the end of the call.

[OhioBuckeye]

We just received a phone call purportedly from our grandson having been in an auto accident in which a six-month pregnant woman ran a red light, and he hit her. He was treated for a broken nose and a lip requiring six stitches, then was arrested for reckless driving. His lawyer, John Steinberg, would contact us with pertinent information, and he would likely have to post a bond to get out of jail. He also gave us a case number: C749882651.He sniveled and cried through the whole conversation, perhaps in an effort to make his voice less recognizable.

He ignored questions of specifics that we posed to him: 'Where are you now?' 'In what hospital were you treated?' When it reached the point of 'Could we keep this between us?' we responded 'No, don't think so.' Then came his moment of belligerence: 'Why not?' We allowed the question to hang, and after a few seconds he hung up. Caller ID gave us the number from which he was calling: 352-392-5286.

We promptly called the Sheriff's Office, from which we were transferred to a unit that handles specifically scammers trying to scam other individuals. We're waiting for a callback from them; in the meantime, we felt it important enough to post on ToTV.

I thought for sure you would end this by saying this to the caller that your grandson was standing right nexted to you.

[Topspinmo]

I agree, but you can't literally block every number in the world. But, you can turn on your "do not disturb" setting and allow an exception for calls on your contacts list.

Or just don’t answer it.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

I answer calls because sometimes it's the health insurance people calling me back, and I'm expecting their call and don't want to have to play phone tag with voice mails. A lot of these folks work from home now and get dedicated cell phones with their own number, but caller ID doesn't recognize as being with the health insurance company.

If I hear no response to my "hello?" within 10 seconds I hang up. If they're legit they'll call back.

If they are robot calls, I hang up and block the number.

If they are actual people scamming me I'll either say no or swear at them in Greek or Spanish, and then hang up.

[golfing eagles]

We just received a phone call purportedly from our grandson having been in an auto accident in which a six-month pregnant woman ran a red light, and he hit her. He was treated for a broken nose and a lip requiring six stitches, then was arrested for reckless driving. His lawyer, John Steinberg, would contact us with pertinent information, and he would likely have to post a bond to get out of jail. He also gave us a case number: C749882651.He sniveled and cried through the whole conversation, perhaps in an effort to make his voice less recognizable.

He ignored questions of specifics that we posed to him: 'Where are you now?' 'In what hospital were you treated?' When it reached the point of 'Could we keep this between us?' we responded 'No, don't think so.' Then came his moment of belligerence: 'Why not?' We allowed the question to hang, and after a few seconds he hung up. Caller ID gave us the number from which he was calling: 352-392-5286.

We promptly called the Sheriff's Office, from which we were transferred to a unit that handles specifically scammers trying to scam other individuals. We're waiting for a callback from them; in the meantime, we felt it important enough to post on ToTV.

Also, everyone should be aware that the jury duty scam is back. Someone will call and inform you there is an arrest warrant out against you for failing to show up for jury duty, then demand money.

I had this one a few years ago, someone claiming to be U. S. Marshall Alvarez told me I was going to be arrested for failure to show up for jury duty and the judge issued a bench warrant. But.....if I gave him 2 "vouchers" (African term for bank check) of $3,000 each by 5PM that day, he would make it go away. Otherwise, he would send "local law enforcement" to arrest me and I should have my lawyers there. I counteroffered: Since this is a federal warrant and you are a federal agent, why don't YOU come here and arrest me. I'll have my "lawyers" waiting---they're from the law firm of Smith, Wesson, Remington, Colt and Glock and they are real anxious to meet you. I then suggest he take his &*%$ scam back to whatever %^*$# third world country he came from and get the *&%%$ out of the USA.

[EdFNJ]

I agree, but you can't literally block every number in the world. But, you can turn on your "do not disturb" setting and allow an exception for calls on your contacts list. That works well but can be dangerous as it was for me a number of years ago. There are a lot of situations when sending **ALL** numbers not in your contact list directly to voice mail could be at the least bad and at most dangerous especially in the middle of the night. One has to seriously consider all the ramifications of that before doing it like family health, older relatives, kids etc etc No one can have every possible emergency call phone number in their contact list.

[DrHitch]

And NEVER trust any "area codes"....don't even answer calls from your "home" area ...

[CatskillBill]

Everyone must watch
Scammer Payback on YouTube.
He had lots of videos.
This guy is great.
He actually gets into the hackers system and reeks havoc deleting their files and wasting their time.

[juddfl]

I had a phone call like that about a year ago. I decided to play with him. His name was Tommy and he needed money.

Tommy: Grandma can you help me? I'm in trouble.
Me: Why don't you call your dad?
Tommy: I can't, he'll get really mad at me.
Me: Well, ask you mom.
Tommy: I can't, she'll tell my dad.
Me: Tommy, I have a question for you.
Tommy: What grandma?
Me: I never had children, so how can you be my grandson?
Tommy: You just wasted my time.

Then he hung up on me. That was a lot of fun!

[mikeycereal]

I don't pick up unknown calls, but if I did and it is a scammer... some of these responses are cute and silly but I'd just take the quickest 1-click response and waste as little of my time as possible.

[nativetex]

When last time heard scammer being arrested? I’m surprised they caught Bernie Madoff.

Sadly, but in the tech age it best not answer phone or emails unless you know exactly who they are from. If I don’t recognize the call or email I don’t answer and email going in trash.

I never answer the phone from anyone I do not know. If it is important, a person can leave a message. This has cut my unknown number calls a lot. They never leave a message. When someone answers the scammers' calls, they will keep calling even if you hang up on them.

[Worldseries27]

we just received a phone call purportedly from our grandson having been in an auto accident in which a six-month pregnant woman ran a red light, and he hit her. He was treated for a broken nose and a lip requiring six stitches, then was arrested for reckless driving. His lawyer, john steinberg, would contact us with pertinent information, and he would likely have to post a bond to get out of jail. He also gave us a case number: C749882651.he sniveled and cried through the whole conversation, perhaps in an effort to make his voice less recognizable.

He ignored questions of specifics that we posed to him: 'where are you now?' 'in what hospital were you treated?' when it reached the point of 'could we keep this between us?' we responded 'no, don't think so.' then came his moment of belligerence: 'why not?' we allowed the question to hang, and after a few seconds he hung up. Caller id gave us the number from which he was calling: 352-392-5286.

We promptly called the sheriff's office, from which we were transferred to a unit that handles specifically scammers trying to scam other individuals. We're waiting for a callback from them; in the meantime, we felt it important enough to post on totv.
thank you

[Worldseries27]

i talk to these people , i have given out so many fake ss# and credit card# i can't remember them all
a scammer with an indian asian accent was on our car speaker phone pretending to be an irs agent threatening imprisonment. We caught onto the scam within 30 seconds and 4 people in the car mercilessly berated his culture, family especially his mom and dad. No matter what sex toy was going to be used on his family he kept reading from the script. They fear their bosses more than our legal system

[GizmoWhiskers]

You can also set a specific ring tones for your favorite contacts and one for all others. Ignore the rest.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

a scammer with an indian asian accent was on our car speaker phone pretending to be an irs agent threatening imprisonment. We caught onto the scam within 30 seconds and 4 people in the car mercilessly berated his culture, family especially his mom and dad. No matter what sex toy was going to be used on his family he kept reading from the script. They fear their bosses more than our legal system

That seems like an incredibly childish way to respond to a scammer. I mean like 6th grade stuff. There are LOTS of ways to deal with a scammer. Having four of your pals in a car revert to "ur mom" memes is one of the more infantile options and doesn't speak well of the carload of people at all.

[Bill14564]

That seems like an incredibly childish way to respond to a scammer. I mean like 6th grade stuff. There are LOTS of ways to deal with a scammer. Having four of your pals in a car revert to "ur mom" memes is one of the more infantile options and doesn't speak well of the carload of people at all.

There is a proper etiquette for how to respond to someone lying to me and trying to steal my money?

[jparsoneau@aol.com]

I honestly don’t understand why anybody would send money to people they don’t know these scams have been around for years I’ve heard of them for many years I’ve heard of them in other state. Do not send money over the phone do not ever give anybody your personal information over the Internet or the phone. If you are concerned tell them you need to make some phone calls have them call you back in a couple hours and do your own investigation do not send your money. Nothing new here

[OhioBuckeye]

If they’re not on my contact list or if a name comes up & I don’t know them l never answer, NEVER. Because these callers always have a way to keep you talking.

[OhioBuckeye]

Personally I think I would of hung up immediately & called the hospital instead of talking to a want a be lawyer about his bond fees. My children & grandchildren are more important than lawyer fees or bonds. This scam has been going around for at least 10 yrs.

[Quixote]

How did you not know that wasn’t your grandson?
Not sure really, but I did know within a few seconds. Maybe his low-key tone until he decided I have a grandson; then he morphed into the sniveling.

Why didn’t you ask him his mothers maiden name, what city was he born and the name of his first pet?
WIth all his weeping and wailing, I wanted to string him along in the present, asking 'Where are you now?' and 'Which hospital were you treated in?' His ignoring these questions validated my initial impression that this was a scam.

I thought for sure you would end this by saying this to the caller that your grandson was standing right nexted to you.
Even simpler, I could have said 'Grandson? What grandson? I don't have a grandson....' But that would have ended the call sooner than I was ready toi.

Personally I think I would of hung up immediately & called the hospital instead of talking to a want a be lawyer about his bond fees. My children & grandchildren are more important than lawyer fees or bonds. This scam has been going around for at least 10 yrs.
What hospital would you have called? Please reread what I wrote: You missed the point that I DID ask him at what hospital he was treated, and his failure to answer this and other questions in the present continued to validated that this was a scam. He was a pretty good actor; asking him questions like his mother's maiden name and so forth would have put him on to my recognition that he was a scammer.

thank you
You're welcome. My intention was to be able to give as much information as I could to others in my position (potential recipients of the scam) AND to those who might even remotely be in a position to do anything. I knew this was not an issue for the Sheriff, but I didn't think of contacting Seniors Versus Crime, as the Sheriff's office suggested. We ordinarily never answer unknown calls, instead letting them either hang up or leaving a voice mail message. This was an exception as we have family members traveling who could be calling from anywhere.

In retrospect I'm sorry I ended the scam when I did by refusing 'to keep the incident between us.' Who knows what further information I may have been able to pick up—maybe all useless information—or maybe not. At one time I was scammed involving two banks; when the dust settled one bank recognized the injustice and made good on it, while the other bank ... well ... I will post the story on ToTV at some point.

[Ann Sim]

I received a message on my FACEBOOK PAGE, from a so called gentleman named, Andrew Goddard, really nice looking..saying how he has been trying to reach me, as he always enjoys what I share on FB..however he isn’t able to reach me, could I pls answer his friend request & click on his profile..
When I checked his name out ,U see his picture etc.. and he has the word SCAM all over his Photos !! I thank the LORD I’m smart enough not to even go there 🙏🏽