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  Geebo 8:00 am on July 14, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: bail scam ( 15 ), family impersonation scam, grandparent scam ( 69 ), Scams ( 1,373 )   

  Grandparent scam now spreading to other relatives 

  

  By Greg Collier

  If you were worried about your grandparents becoming the victim of the grandparent scam, you may now have to worry about your aunts and uncles too. Long-time readers will be well familiar with this scam. It’s when a scammer typically calls an elderly person and poses as one of their grandchildren. The fake grandchild says they’re in some kind of legal trouble and need money for bail or some similar fine or fee. The fake grandchild will then ask the victim not to tell anyone else in the family because of embarrassment, but in reality it’s to keep the victim isolated from their family, so the victim won’t know they’re being scammed. Now, it seems that the scammers have branched out from grandparents and are now contacting other family members as well.

  This recently happened to a woman in Middletown, Connecticut. She received a phone call from someone claiming to be her nephew. As expected, the fake nephew claimed to have been in a car accident and now is in jail. The nephew then said he sounded different because of an injury received in the accident. Scammers will typically claim a broken nose as the cause of the mismatched voice.

  The ‘nephew’ then gave the phone number to his supposed public defender. The woman called the public defender who instructed her that she needed to pay $9500 for her nephew’s bail and that a courier would be by to pick up the money. It wasn’t until after the woman paid the courier before she felt like she was being scammed. She called her family and found out that her nephew was not in jail. The woman called local police and while police were at her home the scammers called back asking for $10,000 more. With the police there, she waited for the courier, who was arrested on the spot. The courier allegedly tried claiming that she was there to pick up money from a friend’s aunt’s house.

  So, let your family know that it’s not just grandparents that have to look out for this scam. It seems now that any older relative can be targeted in this scam.

   

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  Geebo 9:00 am on November 20, 2020 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: airport ( 5 ), airport jail scam, family impersonation scam, impersonation scam ( 146 ), Scams ( 1,373 )   

  A new airport scam just in time for the holidays 

  

  With many people getting ready to travel for the holidays, even though they should stay home, a new scam has popped up. It’s a type of impersonation scam that takes many of its cues from the grandparent scam. Let’s call it the airport jail scam.

  In this scam, the scammer calls the victim pretending to be a friend or relative. They’ll claim that they’re being detained at the airport for whatever reason and need you to wire them money so they can be released. Sometimes the scammers will have a second person pose as someone in authority like a lawyer or police officer to make the scam sound more convincing and to place extra pressure on the victim. As with most scams, once you wire the money, the scammer disappears and you never see the money again.

  Now, most major airports do have a detention center where people who have been arrested are held. However, unless they’ve been arrested on a federal offense, an arrestee wouldn’t be able to make a phone call until they were transferred to the local police department for processing. We first heard of this scam using Fresno Yosemite International Airport in Fresno, California as the place where the alleged friend was being held in ‘airport jail. This airport is not a major airport like LAX or Newark International and does not have a detaining area.

  And just like in the grandparent scam, it is recommended that if you receive one of these phone calls that you don’t immediately make arrangements for payment. Instead, you should try to contact the person claiming to be in ‘airport jail’. You can also ask the person a question only they might know that couldn’t be gleaned from social media.

  While you think you may not fall for a scam like this, reports say that some people have already fallen for it. It’s easy to be led down that path when you think a loved one may be in danger. if your friend or relative is being detained, they will not get into any additional trouble if you verify their story.