Latest Phone Scam

[blume357]

At least for me, I had never heard of this one before and yes it could be just coincidence but I doubt it.

Good friend's mother who is in her late 80's has been taken by two phone scams before and so luckily she did not get caught by this one. Last week she got a call by a person identifying himself as her grandson Adam... she does have a grown grandson by that name... the person on the phone told her he had been in a car accident a few days before that broke his nose and he needed a couple thousand dollars to pay the bill and get his car fixed.....now here is the interesting part.. not only does she have a grandson named Adam but her real grandson had been in a car accident just a few days before........

 

[Fox Mike]

It is a shame that predators prey on the old and easily fooled. I am half of that category. . .old; not too easily fooled. Had I gotten the call I would have asked if he wanted me to send the money to his new address or the old one. Then ask what it was, as I don't remember addresses too well.

 

[Snake45]

It is a shame that predators prey on the old and easily fooled. I am half of that category. . .old; not too easily fooled. Had I gotten the call I would have asked if he wanted me to send the money to his new address or the old one. Then ask what it was, as I don't remember addresses too well.

They won't ask you to "send" the money. They'll want you to pay in some weird way, like buying a particular type of gift card or money order, and then you give them the number of it. They almost took my Dad that way a couple years ago.

 

[bogus bill]

A couple years ago my brother in law (a retired cop) called my wife and wanted to know what was up with me. He got a E-mail from me asking for money. I was in London, got pick pocketed and needed money to fly home. In the couple days we must have got another dozen inquires asking the same thing. Actually everyone that I ever e-mailed! Somehow someone got into my E-mail address list. Later I asked several other people on my list and they had also got the same E-mail but didn't bother getting ahold of me as they knew it obviously was a scam.

 

[Fox Mike]

Trust, but verify. My grandkids all have a special name that they call me. I would know in a second it was or wasn't one of them.

 

[blume357]

Like said, it could have been a coincidence and maybe I'm over thinking it but the car accident is the key... I'm thinking the crooks got access to the accident report either via the department of transportation or insurance then then tracked the guys Grandmother down that way.

 

[Snake45]

Like said, it could have been a coincidence and maybe I'm over thinking it but the car accident is the key... I'm thinking the crooks got access to the accident report either via the department of transportation or insurance then then tracked the guys Grandmother down that way.

I had exactly the same idea.

 

[Pat-inCO]

Simple solution: In ALL cases, get the person's full name, company name,
bank account number, "where you can transfer the money to" ( :roll: ),
and the phone number where you can call them back, once the transaction
is complete. BE INSISTENT on receiving ALL information! Missing
information equals NO MONEY.

If it happens to be valid (not likely) they will be happy to provide you the
information. If it is a scam, they will have hung up before you get to the
BE INSISTENT part.

The senior involved will understand, and especially if you tell them to call
you or someone else with the information first. That way there is someone
that is skeptical, reviewing the proposed transaction (just in case it IS
valid).

 

[Montelores]

Do not ever share personal information on the telephone in a conversation which you did not initiate.

Monty

 

[wunbe]

A friends's elderly mother was fleeced out of thousands of dollars on a phone. Just as she was getting suspicious, another guy called claiming to be a Canadian Mounty who was hot on the the trail of the perps and setting up a sting to trap them in the ac., But, you guessed it, he needed enough seed money to draw them in to recover her lost money. She fell for it too.

Bastids!

wunbe