[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by Petersweeney

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]

Originally Posted by NoMo50

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]

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter

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

That would be dishonest.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Petersweeney

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]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

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]

Originally Posted by NoMo50

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]

Originally Posted by Pres1939

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.