Grandpa/Grandma phone scam
 

A few months ago my father received a phone call during the day from a young man, and the conversation started something like this "Hello Grandpa, I need your help..." and then the young man described how he got into trouble at a bar, was in jail and needed bail money and not to tell his parents. This is the classic Grandpa/Grandma phone scam which has been going on for several years. My dad was absolutely convinced that this young man calling him was my sister's stepson who is 25. I told my dad that it most likely was not my sister's stepson, but just some scammer who preyed on the elderly, and that this Grandpa/Grandma phone scam has been going on for several years. My father would not believe that someone claiming to be a grandchild in trouble would make these kinds of phone calls to senior citizens. Fortunately he told the caller that he could not help, and hung up.

Has anyone on TOTV ever received one of the Grandpa/Grandma phone scam calls? My father is still convinced it was my sister's stepson who made the phone call.

The Grandparents Scam - old news around here. It has been discussed on this forum (I think), written about in The Daily Sun, and is one of the scams mentioned in many of the presentations concerning scams made to clubs and groups around The Villages. It is really a pretty common scam.

NOT the gramma-granpa scam but a week ago or so around 10:30 at night. Phone rings, with "unavailable phone #" listed. I've begun to answer these because sometimes it's actually a person needing to speak with us. Anyway, I answered and the other party (a woman) said "This is your neighbor _____, my husband is gone and we're out of toilet paper".... and maybe she said some other items with this. I do have one neighbor by that name so I looked out at their house but didn't see any lights on so I asked her "what's your husband's name?" The person told me a name but it wasn't the husband's of my neighbor SOOO I told her we don't have neighbor's by those names and I hung up on her. NOT sure if they were dialing #'s to see if people were gone at certain addresses so they could "case" the place. BUT this could be something happening here as well.

and that's why i only have a cell phone

Yes and in my case they didn't do their homework as they were trying to tell me they were my 10 year old grandson (kept using his name) and that while visiting Canada they were thrown in jail and need bail and a fine of $3,500. This was before I did away with the home phone and now only use a cell now.

About a year ago I received an bogus email from my sister (using her real email address)claiming she was in Spain and needed $2500. I knew she wasn't in Spain, called her, they had sent it to all her contacts and she was unable to access her email account to send a followup because of the hacking.

The same folks did that to me as well. Folks called from all over the country to see if all was well. I couldn't access my e-mail or Facebook accounts. Had a man come to clean things up for me...it was a mess. He said true hackers have a system that scrolls which eventually will pull up true e-mail addresses. This is the reason, he said, to try to place numbers and symbles, lower and upper case letters in our e-mail addresses and our passwords to make them difficult to crack. He also told us that the trolls will have websites that look like legit ones where somehow that grabs our info. In my case it was the holidays and I was shopping online...or at least was scoping out sites (I hadn't ordered anything). It was a HUGE pain to correct!!!

Several months ago, I had the same scam call...Hi Grandma, this is your grandson, Kevin, calling from Canada. He said he was with 2 other guys on a road trip to Canana and got into an accident. One of the guys had marajuna. They put us all in jail and even though I didn't have marajuna, I have to go in front of the judge to get out of jail. So, I need $3500 for bail, etc etc etc. He told me to call an attorney that they had given him. Of course, \when I got off the phone, I called Kevin...asked him where he was....and he said that he was sitting in his college class!

I have also received emails supposedly from relatives or friends, saying that their wallet and passport had been stolen, and they needed to borrow money to get home from Europe. Also a scam that has been going around for years.

Why don't you call your sister's step son and ask him, so you're Father will be convinced.

It is good to post these every so often so we do not forget.
Thanks

We do not believe anyone who calls us (that isn't a friend or family member). We just "hang up".

Our pet peeve is the F.B.I. calling, the sheriffs dept., the police dept., the fire department, etc.........the latter three looking for donations. We found out long ago that they are not even LOCAL, but from God knows where........and just hang up on them. We donate in person to our local guys.......who are our neighbors and volunteer firemen, etc.

We also do not like when the various charities CALL in the middle of a movie, etc...........we tell them we are "tapped out on our contributions".

We do give, and give from our heart..........but not to those who call on the telephone.

The best one was when the forest fires were raging out west most recently. We kept getting frequent phone calls.....and RUDE ones at that, from American Indian Tribes who wanted us to donate to their "peeps" who were suffering from the fires.........when I asked where they were located and they said "Amsterdam, New York" not far from Vermont........I turned it around and asked them if they'd like to donate to my son and his family in Colorado or our friends in California......at which they HUNG UP THE PHONE.

We notice that we no longer get all the miraculous medals and Indian feathers from the Lakota Sioux tribes/orphanages out west anymore.........not since all the child /sex scandals broke in the news...........people just stopped donating to all of these charities.

As my mom always said, "Charity begins at home".........

Glad your dad just hung up..........tell him to go with his gut instinct the next time. If he isn't speaking to the "real deal" then it is a scam.

P.S. I want to clarify that I am not prejudiced against American Indians....just mentioning all the "scam phone calls" that we do get from them.

American Indians, of many tribes, all over our nation are not all that bad off.
When we were in CRAZY HORSE in Custer, South Dakota.......we were surprised to meet such highly educated native americans, all with law degrees, selling turquoise jewelry as a sideline........very nice to speak with; I bought many of their books....and a "dream catcher" which gave me nightmares........but it was beautiful. The ironic part of the "hand crafted Indian jewelry" was when my husband noticed, after picking up piece after piece, that it was all MADE IN CHINA.

The Crazy Horse Monument is a sight to behold.......will be spectacular when finished.

Lots of the Indian tribes have casinos.............and now some tribes are selling cigarettes at a lower cost..........so they really do not need to call us for donations.

When we travel up to the Maritime Provinces of Canada, we drive up the coast of Maine and overnight in Eastport which is close to the very top..........when you first enter Eastport, it's all "reservation" land and you have to drive at a very slow speed. They live in very very very nice modern homes..........then the speed goes back to normal and you are in the part of Eastport that us normal folks would live in......well, it's like night and day with regard to the visual of the homes of regular Easport residents compared to the nicer ones of the Indians who live on the "reservation".

Just saying, they don't need to call us for donations..............
My husband turns it around and asks them if they'd like to donate to us.
His Polish humor.

The scamsters are counting on surprise (disorientation), people's good manners and naivety to give them the edge.

Turn the table and get control of the situation.

We make it a policy in our home to never engage in a conversation with some unknown person during the unexpected call. We call back. This includes anyone claiming to be someone that represents a business we have a relationship with (e.g., bank, investments, etc). I never divulge any information to anyone based on some unexpected call! For that matter, there is some information I will not ever divulge over the phone to anyone. At most, I might acknowledge my first name if asked (e.g., Can I speak with Name... Speaking). I want to some level of confidence or verification about who they are before I say much of anything.

The other thing I do with unknown callers is "stop them in their tracks".... Get to the point! Then 99% of the time I end the call. Because it is someone wanting money or trying to sell something!

We use advanced phone features.

Unknown Caller ID/number - most times we let unknown number go to voice mail.... I have been considering just sending unknowns number to voicemail automatically on first ring. We call back if it seems to be someone we want to talk to. If they claim to be some business that I use... I never use the phone number they provided during the call... I always look up the number using the phone book or their website and callback using a more reliable number (to avoid calling a fake number). I always keep the conversation on topic and very short. I am always on guard about what I am saying and what information is divulged.