The Grandparent Scam Makes Its Way to Florida

"Grandpa?" says the tremulous voice on the phone.
"Johnny?" replies Grandpa.
"Yes, it's Johnny, and I'm in trouble. I need your help."
So begins one of the crueler scams making its way across the country, most recently in Florida. In the so called Grandparent Scam, con artists use a young person to scam grandparents out of their money, supposedly to help their darling grandchild. It has happened to people I know, and here's how the Grandparent Scam works.

The young person calls, sounds upset, and lets the elderly person fill in the name. Then, agreeing that they are that person, they claim to be in Canada on a short trip. They say they've been in a car accident in a rental car, and if they don't pay somewhere in the range of $2,000 for the damages, they will go to jail. "Don't tell Mom and Dad, it will only worry them; I'll tell them myself tomorrow when I fly back home." The line is full of static, and the elderly person often can't hear very well anyway. There is a time constraint as well. In one of the calls, made at 3:20, the money had to be wired by 5:00. No time to think it through; besides, the elderly victim is touched that the grandchild called them and is depending on them.

The Grandparent Scam is diabolically brilliant and beyond cruel. What grandparent wouldn't help their grandchild? Everything is in a hurry, the elderly person might be a little confused and hard of hearing, and they are likely to have some cash put by that they can get their hands on. So the money is wired, and it is only later when they find out their real grandchild knows nothing about the matter that they realize they've been scammed. Feeling foolish and embarrassed, they don't really want anyone to know about what they did, so the scam continues. For some grandparents, it is hard to admit they were fooled; they get angry and defensive. Often feeling restricted in their activities by the rest of the family, the last thing they want is for their adult children to think they are incompetent to live alone or handle their own affairs, so the scam goes unchallenged and the next elderly person falls for it as well.

In one case, the crooks had a hard time accessing the money, so they began calling every 20 minutes or so, for hours. When suspicions were finally beginning to be roused and questions asked, the line began "cutting out" on the answers, and finally the calls began coming from a "lawyer" trying to "help keep your grandchild out of jail." Even when the adult son had finally been alerted and answered the next call, the pretend lawyer did not want to give up his prey, and tried desperately to keep the scam going while being told that the young person in question was known to be fine, and in town. Even when called a liar, the con artist defended himself and attempted to keep the ruse going as long as possible. He knew chances of his being caught were slim, and unfortunately he was right.

The police were actually called, but the amount of money was too large for the officer to take the report at the home; the couple was advised to come in to the station and talk to a detective. Embarrassment often takes the upper hand, and they'd rather not advertise what they did, so even the information the police could gather goes unreported.

The only real clue as to how the crooks get the names of the elderly people is seeing a profile picture on Facebook. If your elderly parents or grandparents have a profile page on Facebook, it might be a good idea to help them set their privacy settings. Also, warn the elderly loved one about the Grandparent Scam, ask them to call you if they get a strange sounding call from the grandkids, and ask your kids to call you if they are in trouble instead of their grandparents. Family dynamics being what they are, they may or may not do what you ask. But the more people that are aware of the Grandparent Scam, the less likely that the scam will work.

Resources: Personal experience