Why scammers strike twice
By Greg Collier
If you’re a regular reader, you’re probably very familiar with the grandparent scam. In case you’re a new reader, the grandparent scam is when scammers will call an elderly victim posing as one of the victim’s grandchildren. They’ll claim they’re in some kind of legal trouble and need money for bail or other legal fees.
Recently, in Hampton, New Hampshire, an elderly couple was targeted in a grandparent scam. The scammers posed as an attorney’s office, and claimed the couple’s grandson was in a car accident and not only needed money for medical costs, but also legal costs since the scammers said the grandson hit a pregnant woman in the accident.
As grandparent scammers have been doing lately, the scammers posed as couriers, and picked up close to $10,000 from the couple. However, the scammers are said to have pushed their luck by trying to get more money from the couple. At first, the scammers tried to get $20,000 from the couple, but settled for another $10,000.
While the couple were withdrawing money from their bank, a bank teller was suspicious and advised the couple about the scam. Local police were contacted and arrested the alleged scammers when they arrived at the couple’s home the second time.
Many scammers will try to get additional money from a victim if the victim has already paid once. We’ve seen this with sweepstakes scams and other forms of advance fee scam, where the scammers will continue to ask for money but never deliver any benefit to their victims.
In other instances, if a victim pays once, scammers will make note of that, and try using a different scam on that same victim at a later time. We’ve even hard of some scammers that trade lists of victims with other scammers for money.
If you or someone you know has fallen victim to any number of phone or internet scams, there’s a good chance they could be targeted again. As such, they should be highly skeptical of phone calls, text messages, emails, and social media messages from strangers.
As far as the grandparent scam is concerned, anyone who receives that type of call should hang up and call someone who can verify the well-being of the loved one who’s supposedly been arrested. Also, keep in mind police, attorneys, or bail bondsmen will never call you asking for money.
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