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  Geebo 9:00 am on November 30, 2020 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: grandparent scam ( 69 ), Maine, Police ( 9 ), Scams ( 1,387 )   

  Police dispatcher foils grandparent scam 

  

  In recent times, we’ve posted about how scammers are upping their game so to speak when it comes to grandparent scams. As you may know, the grandparent scam specifically targets the elderly as the name implies. The scammer will pose as one of the victim’s grandchildren and claim that they need money for bail or some other kind of emergency. They’ll ask the victims not to say anything to the rest of the family.

  Since the grandparent scam has become prevalent, we’ve seen stories of scammers sending someone to the victim’s home to collect the money, scammers keeping their victims from hanging up the phone, and scammers claiming there is a gag order in place to prevent the victim from talking to relatives. Now, at least one scammer has tried to get local police involved to convince the victim that they were a grandchild.

  In Falmouth, Maine, a police dispatcher was able to thwart one of these instances. The scammer is said to have called police claiming to be a relative of an elderly resident. The scammer asked police to check in on the woman since they had not heard from them in a while. This type of call is not unheard of by police as many people will ask police to conduct a welfare check. The thought here is that if actual police visit the victim’s home, the victim will believe the scammer is actually one of their grandchildren. Luckily, the dispatcher personally knew the victim in this instance. The dispatcher was able to ask the scammer questions that only a family member would know before the scammer’s story started to fall apart.

  While the dispatcher is to be commended, we can’t all have personal friends at the police department looking out for us. As with any grandparent scam. never let the caller keep you on the phone. Always reach out to someone who knows the grandchild’s whereabouts or call the grandchild directly. Reach out to family even if the caller says not to. Even if the call is real no one is going to be sentenced to life in prison if you hang up on the phone call from the supposed grandchild.

  If you know an elderly person or couple who live alone and do not have access to the internet, please let them know about this scam. Also, consider setting up a family password for just such emergencies so you can verify the person calling is who they say they are.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plgnxwZ-WNA

   

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  Geebo 9:01 am on October 15, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: craigslist ( 129 ), George Stanley, harassment ( 8 ), Maine, theft ( 6 )   

  Man’s home ransacked after malicious craigslist ad posted 

  

  There’s a crime that’s been occurring through craigslist for years now that while not as violent as some can be just as devastating. Apparently, if you get on the bad side of one of your neighbors they have the option of placing a craigslist ad telling the internet that everything in your house and on your property is being given away for free. Even though in reality, no one ever gives away all their possessions for free on craigslist, it doesn’t stop craigslist users from showing up in droves to plunder the property like so many Visigoths at the gates of Rome. Sadly, this occurred to one man in Maine.

  George Stanley left his home and business in Greene, Maine, to spend a couple of weeks in Florida. When he returned, he found that his property had been pillaged and much of what wasn’t taken was destroyed. According to Stanley, he had a car on his property that he was planning on restoring. The marauding horde of vandals not only cut the tires off the car, but they also pried open the trunk, hood, and doors to take whatever they could. Mr. Stanley reportedly has cancer and believes he only has a few years left, but now, many of the possessions he had that he used to make a living are now gone and nothing has been returned.

  This unfortunate incident could have been easily prevented if craigslist just took the extra step to moderate their ads. Instead, craigslist let’s just about every ad get posted to their platform unless it hurts their own bottom line. While most rational people wouldn’t believe someone would give away all their stuff in such a disorganized matter, there are a number of people who believe anything they read on the internet and lot of them use craigslist. We at Geebo care about not only our users more than that but also the general public as we moderate our ads and we would never willingly allow our platform to be used to create such havoc.