Saw this Baynet article about a local lady being scammed out of $500 after responding to an ad that offered to pay her to have her car wrapped in a Red Bull advertisement (click here for article.)
 |
| http://www.thebaynet.com/articles/0917/prince-frederick-woman-falls-prey-to-facebook-scam.html |
This came on the heels of someone telling me just last week in Buzzy’s Country Store about a local Grandfather who was scammed out of $8,000 that he sent to assist his grand daughter. This is known as the Grandparents Scam and has been around for quite awhile. However, the local Granddad fell for it.
The scam involves a call from someone sounding like a grandchild telling his/her grandparent(s) that they are in a jam and need money to post bail, pay a hospital bill, repair their car etc..
Our local friend received such a call from someone purporting to be his grand daughter saying that she had been in a car wreck in Miami, had a broken her nose and needed cash to pay her medical bills. Her broken nose, she said, explained why she sounded the way she did.
What made this particular scam different and more sinister is that the real granddaughter had indeed left earlier that day to go to Miami and was on a plane heading there. Her Granddad did not know the particulars of her flight plans but did know that she was bound for Miami.
It turns out that the real Granddaughter was in the air when the scam call was made to her Granddad. That explains why any return calls to her went unanswered until she had landed and had her phone turned back on. The scammer(s) knew that she would be incommunicado and chose that time to call Granddad accordingly.
Following the call, Granddad went to the Credit Union and wired his scammers the $8,000. A short while later, his real Granddaughter landed in Miami, returned his phone calls to her and explained that she was ok. Granddad then re-contacted the Credit Union to halt the payment but it was too late as the money had already been sent.
Ordinarily, my response to scam stories about folks being duped falls in the “a fool and his money” category. However, because these scams took place to local people, one of whom I know and respect, my take is now more along the lines – “Why can’t the FCC, the FBI, the Better Business Bureau or someone put an end to these kind of things?!”