Greg's Corner

Are scammers knocking on your grandparent’s door?

By Greg Collier

We’re about to discuss a twist on the grandparent scam we’ve discussed before, but we think it bears repeating.

For those who may not know, the grandparent scam is when a scammer targets an elderly victim with the purpose of defrauding them by calling the victim on the phone and claiming that one of their grandchildren is in jail and needs money for bail and legal fees. Historically, the scammers have posed as the grandchildren themselves, but as people became wise to the scam, the scammers started posing as lawyers and police. The scammers also tell their victims not to tell anyone about what’s going on, either as the grandchild not wanting the rest of the family to know or under threat of a bogus gag order by police.

In the past, these grandparent scammers would have their victims send the phony bail money through a money transfer service like MoneyGram or through gift cards. More recently, the scammers have been sending people to the victims’ homes to collect the money personally. We have seen reports where scammers have sent unwitting Uber drivers to pick up the money, or the scammers have gone to the home themselves disguised as couriers. Recently, in Massachusetts, police have reported that the scammers are showing up at victim’s homes claiming to be bail bondsmen. After the fake bondsmen was given close to $13,000 by a victim, the scammer made the motions of making a phone call to a judge and said that the victim’s family member was on their way to being released. The family member used by these scammers was never really in any legal trouble.

If you ever receive one of these calls, the first thing to remember is to not give out any family names to the caller. However, that may not be enough if the scammer has been tracking you through social media. What you can do is hang up and verify the relative’s whereabouts. No one has ever gotten extra jail time for a family member who wanted to check the veracity of the story. Also, bondsmen never come out to a house to collect bond money. You have to go to them, and they won’t call a judge in front of you.

If you have any elderly family or friends who may not be aware of this scam, please share this post with them or any one of the news articles out there about it.