Countering Scams

[Rancher Will]

From time to time I have noticed comments by members here, related to various scams. As a 40 year career LEO, I have over the years investigated and was able to arrest a number of scammers. This week I finally got a chance to help another agency identify a scammer. My experience may help others here if they become potential scam victims. Those of us in Law Enforcement need all the help we can get.

Tuesday I received a phone call from a person that opened the call with, "Grandpa, this is your oldest grandson. I need your help and you are the only one who can help me. I am in Utah and had a terrible accident over last weekend. I drove with my girl friend to a wedding and we had a terrible accident. My girlfriend is in the hospital, my face was injured so that my voice can not speak very plain. A woman in the other car is in the hospital and is losing her baby. I am in jail and have an attorney. My bail was set for $100,000 and my attorney says I need 10 percent of the bail to get out of jail."

Before he even stopped talking, I knew it was a scam. However, I decided to do a little police work.

I asked him if he was my grandson Ben, Howard, or Joseph, since his voice was quite muffled. He said he was Ben. I then told him that I did not have $10,000 in cash in the house to send so I would need to get my bank to send a cashiers check. I asked him for the Sheriff's office address to send the money to the Sheriff, since he was in jail. I also asked him why he called me instead of his father. He told me that he had been drinking before the accident and he didn't want his father to know about it. He also said that he knew that I could afford to loan him the money.

I told him to hold on the phone and talk to Grandma while I called my bank to arrange for a cashier's check. Without his hearing, I told my wife it was a scam and asked her to play along. She has been my wife since 1950 and was my wife for 40 years while I was an LEO. She actually sobbed on the phone and was distraught that our grandson was in such trouble. She assured him that we would do what we could.

When I came back on the phone I then said, "Ben, the bank needs the address of the Sheriff's office where you are, for the bank to send the check". At that the caller stated that the money should not be sent to the Sheriff, but to his attorney. So I asked for the name and address of his attorney for the bank to make out the check and send it to the right place and person.

I got the full name, address, phone number, of the attorney in Utah, and even a "case number of the case that required the $100,000 bai". Before I hung up the phone I assured "my grandson" that I would see that "he was contacted as soon as possible to get out of jail, and "his attorney should receive a contact soon".

As soon as I got off the phone I called the Sheriff in the Utah County where I was given the "attorney's name and address". I gave the Sheriff all the above information, plus I added some facts. including--

I have no Grandson named Ben, Howard or Joseph. I have nine grandsons, the oldest 56 years old, my youngest grandson is 35 years old, and I recognize the voice of all of them. The caller was not my Grandson. I did not call my bank. I do not intend to call or send any money.

The Sheriff said that he had no knowledge about it but he agreed that it was a scam. He said he would check into the information I had given since others may be victims of the same scam by the same perp. I agreed to come to Utah as a prosecution witness if the sheriff was able to make a case on the event

 

[barrya]

Please keep us updated. Barry

 

[arfmel]

8) Good job.

 

[Tallbald]

Wonderful! I can only play with scammers wanting to access my laptop because of " hacker " signals emitting from my computer they claim to need to fix. I enjoy pretending I cannot follow instructions well, pretending to need to let my dogs out, swat flies loudly in their ear, squeeze out a fart for them then apologize for having had gassy foods for the previous meal (Penny one year got me an electronic "fart machine" as a stocking stuffer), and ask what I should do about excess belching. Anything to waste their time and make them start all over. Things like that.. I wish I could really contribute to their downfall as you have done. Kudos to you Rancher Will! I hope your experience and fast response nails the scammers.

 

[gramps]

Yay! Hope the Sheriff tags him!
gramps

 

[contender]

I love it when we can turn the tables on scammers. Keep after them!

I just saw a yahoo news article where the FCC just fined a robocaller $120 MILLION for the over 100 million robo calls they were responsible for. Good news for sure.

 

[GP100]

Just as Rancher Will, I have had calls over the years as well like this.. Calling the cops did squat.. They could care less.. I was asked if I sent any money to the scammer, to which I said no.. They then told me that since I wasn't out anything, technically no crime was committed..

I don't bother anymore.. I just hang up on the scammers now.. Why bother? Nobody does anything about it, hence why they scam so many people.. Obviously it must be profitable, or they wouldn't do it.. And most of them, I've been told get away with it.. very few prosecutions I was told by the cops..

I was told that if somebody robs you, it's a crime.. If you give someone money freely, not so much.. Especially if it's overseas..

 

[bogus bill]

About five or six years ago my wife's brother who also was a cop, called my wife about a E mail that I sent him. I was in London, got pick pocketed and hitting him up for a loan to get home. I have never been to England. In the next few days another three or four people got the same E mail from me. All were also on my contact list. I checked a few others on my contact list and they also got the E mail but knew it had to be a scam. My BIL also was a LEO at Monument CO., Will.

 

[#1rugerman]

A while back I got a call that my answering machine took, the guy said that he was deputy so and so with the local sheriffs office and that he had a warrant for my arrest and that I needed to call him back as soon as possible. I called the sheriffs office and asked if they had a deputy by that name and if I had a warrant, they told me that they did not have anyone by that name and that I did not have a warrant. I gave them the phone number that I was supposed to call back on. The next day there was a notice in the local paper informing folks of the scam.

 

[Merle1948]

Please keep us updated. Barry

yes, please do! :shock:

 

[coach]

You have way more patience than me. I just hang up.

 

[pete44ru]

In the next few days another three or four people got the same E mail from me.

All were also on my contact list.

I checked a few others on my contact list and they also got the E mail.

Why I've never kept a list of my contacts on my email server.

For me, it's worth the very little effort to retrieve a contact & type into an email manually.


.

 

[bogus bill]

Yeah, I am very computer illiterate even now. I think what happened I got sucked in somehow by a false message from the E-mail carrier that they needed to fix something and I fell for it. People for the last X years have been raised with computers from grade school up but computers weren't invented yet when I went to school in the 1940`s and I never bought a computer until I retired.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

"Hello, this is Robert with Microsoft security..." I get this call about 3 or 4 times a week.

 

[coach]

"Hello, this is Robert with Microsoft security..." I get this call about 3 or 4 times a week.

I get that call too. Robert with a Chinese accent.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I mostly get the sales calls. I have a few different ways to deal with them, just to waste their time, since they want to waste mine.

If I'm busy, most of the time I'll just hang up....but when I'm in the mood, I'll play. Sometimes I'll act interested and say 'Sounds interesting, tell me about it...' and then just set down the phone while they ramble on for a few minutes, until they realize I'm not even listening and they hang up...or I will 'engage the enemy' and start asking them where they're calling from, if they like their job, how they should look for better work, ask if they're attending school...during a drive across town I had one of them on the phone for 22 minutes, mostly answering MY questions...I figured that's 22 minutes they couldn't bother anyone else and it's good practice to help think quickly to keep the conversation going. If it's a woman caller and she sounds hot, I might ask what she's doing this weekend and if that doesn't make her hang up, I'll take it to the next level and ask what she's got on...