[thevillager1988]

“Grandma, I Need Your Help …”

Article in The Walrus | by Rachel Browne. Scammers are posing as grandchildren in trouble, betting on one convincing call to get grandparents to send thousands of dollars. The voice may sound familiar, but the story isn’t what it seems.

Scammers Pretending to Be Grandchildren Are Robbing the Elderly | The Walrus

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by thevillager1988

“Grandma, I Need Your Help …”

Article in The Walrus | by Rachel Browne. Scammers are posing as grandchildren in trouble, betting on one convincing call to get grandparents to send thousands of dollars. The voice may sound familiar, but the story isn’t what it seems.

Scammers Pretending to Be Grandchildren Are Robbing the Elderly | The Walrus

We've got some of these. Just ask them a question only they would know the answer to like where did they have their latest birthday dinner or something even trickier. Where did you last see them, etc.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

We've got some of these. Just ask them a question only they would know the answer to like where did they have their latest birthday dinner or something even trickier. Where did you last see them, etc.

Someone who can fall for this type of scam is usually not logical or smart enough to do that.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Someone who can fall for this type of scam is usually not logical or smart enough to do that.

Someone who can fall for this type of scam is so caught up in helping their grandchild they don’t even consider it might be a scam. That is why the scam is so effective.


“What I would do is….” is easy to think about when one is not in the middle of the situation.

[retiredguy123]

One thing you can do to prevent being scammed is to put your phone on "do not disturb" except for calls from numbers in your contact list. You will never get scammers calling you. In this case, the grandparent would have never received the bogus call.

[ThirdOfFive]

I think that the reason that this particular "grandchild" scam works is that it aligns as much as it does with real life. Our own experience indicates this. Just here in TV, we personally know two retirees who have a child (and in one case a grandchild) living with them. Another supports two grandchildren living out-of-state. One widowed women we know has a son living with her who is "between jobs" and has been for over five years now: he apparently has children also but they don't live with him so it is entirely possible that some of Gramma's money makes it's way to the grandkids. A woman friend of my wife's has a grandson who is in and out of jail: we don't know if she sends him money but it is possible as she talks about him a lot.

Closer to home (so to speak) back in Minnesota my wife's son-in-law has a sister who has two children...both male adults, both college educated. One lives with his grandparents and has for some years now. He doesn't work or pay rent. His rationale: he is college-educated and it would be demeaning to have to work for $15 an hour! It is a major irritation to my wife's son-in-law and has caused a rift in their family but the grandparents insist on "helping" this freeloader.

My guess is that a lot of us TV'ers know of such cases--possibly can even point to them in their own family.

We're (most of us, anyway) are Boomers. That means that we Baby Boomers as a group control over 50% of total U.S. household wealth, amounting to more than $85 trillion (numbers vary somewhat but all of them line up in general with this). Generally speaking we believed in busting our butts to make money and live well, but unfortunately that particular ethic seems to be less and less the case with subsequent generations.

Face it. We have the money. And we also know of, or know personally, people in subsequent generations who are not especially averse to picking up the phone and asking (begging?) for "just a few dollars" to tide them over.

This scam works. Because for all too many of us it isn't a scam at all.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Someone who can fall for this type of scam is usually not logical or smart enough to do that.

Hey, grandkid, my job was to spoil you. When you need bail, call your father 😂😂😂

[retiredguy123]

Most of these scams are successful because they use the phone. Older people have been conditioned to answer the phone whenever it rings, with no way to know where the call is coming from. The best way to prevent being scammed is to screen out these calls, so you never receive them.

[ThirdOfFive]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

Hey, grandkid, my job was to spoil you. When you need bail, call your father 😂😂😂

Heh. Maybe in years past...

True story (which relates in at least a general way to the whole generations helping generations thing...)

Back in the day, one of my brothers, Fred, had a habit of getting in trouble. Not that he did anything more than the rest of us generally did; he was just not as adept at avoiding the consequences. One early Friday evening when the family was at home the phone rang. It was the police from a town about 50 miles away. Dad answered and was told that "we have your son Jack in jail for (what amounted to just general hellraising).

Dad replied "that's strange, seeing that my son Jack is sitting here in the same room with me. Maybe you'd better go back and ask his name again.

They did. Yep, it was Fred. He had given the cops the name of his brother.

So dad jumped into the pickup truck and drove the 50-odd miles to the jail. The police walked him back to see "jack" who according to accounts was sitting somewhat sheepishly and forlornly in his cell. Dad took one look at him and said two words.

"Keep him".

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

One thing you can do to prevent being scammed is to put your phone on "do not disturb" except for calls from numbers in your contact list. You will never get scammers calling you. In this case, the grandparent would have never received the bogus call.

Phone numbers can be spoofed. Also, if there was a LEGITIMATE emergency from a family member, and that family member had to use the hospital phone, or the police department's desk phone, or a stranger's phone, those calls would also not come in.

[Taltarzac725]

I recall pulling into my garage and the door from the house pops open and my Mom who suffered from Alzheimer's asked me "What's my Social Security number?" I took the phone and hung it up .


My Dad used to answer these calls and give them a bunch of bogus information.

Right now I just let the answering machine get all the calls.

Still get all kinds of scams every day or so.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Phone numbers can be spoofed. Also, if there was a LEGITIMATE emergency from a family member, and that family member had to use the hospital phone, or the police department's desk phone, or a stranger's phone, those calls would also not come in.

Missing a legitimate call is a trade off. I get so few legitimate calls from numbers not in my contacts list that it’s a trade I’m willing to make. A legitimate caller will leave a voicemail, my phone will announce a new voicemail, and then I can return the call if needed. It works for me.

[UpNorth]

I get these "grandpa" scams once in awhile. I make up a name for the kid and try to carry on the conversation as long as possible, getting to the point when they try to have you send money somewhere. Then I start acting like a doddering old fool that is unfamiliar with these gift cards and itunes credits. The kid just gives up realizing I've wasted all of his time. Better yet was the mature-sounding guy from "Publishers Clearing House" that was going to make me rich. Asked why he wasn't at my front door with balloons and a big check, and he blamed Covid. Offered to drive over to their headquarters in Long Island to pick up the check and he couldn't answer. Bottom line - don't trust anybody that calls you. Will be even more difficult in the future when you get an Ai call that sounds exactly like your grandkid. Give them a secret code or password, or ask them something personal or specific that Ai would not know.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Another benefit of never having had children: you'll never be scammed by a grandpa call.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Phone numbers can be spoofed. Also, if there was a LEGITIMATE emergency from a family member, and that family member had to use the hospital phone, or the police department's desk phone, or a stranger's phone, those calls would also not come in.

The spoofed number would need to match a number in my contacts list, which is highly unlikely.

Legitimate callers will almost always leave a voicemail, where I can return the call. I have found that scammers rarely leave a voicemail.

My phone has a feature whereby, if a second call from the same number is made within 15 minutes of the first call, it will go through. So, if family members know about this feature, they can get through by just calling twice.

Setting my phone on "do not disturb" except for calls from numbers in my contact list has been a great decision for me. I used to get about 15 calls per day from telemarketers. Now I get none.