The call from Tyler was scary. He had been in a car accident in a rental car in Montreal and needed money to pay an attorney and fly home.
Dorothy Cheo, 81, of Niantic, was so upset on hearing her grandson was in trouble that she couldn’t think straight.
She quickly went to a local grocery store and wired $935 to Montreal through Western Union.
It was only after receiving the second phone call asking for more money that she began to question whether she had really talked to her grandson.
Nope. According to East Lyme resident state police Sgt. Wilfred Blanchette, she was at least the second local victim of this type of scam in the past year.
Cheo contacted me, asking that I tell her story as a cautionary tale to other parents and relatives, and she had a suggestion that Sgt. Blanchette endorsed: create a secret word for the family to use only if they are in trouble.
Cheo said she fell for the scam because the boy identified himself as Tyler and was coughing so hard it was impossible for her to know that it wasn’t really him. And then, when a second person got on the phone explaining he was Tyler’s attorney, she knew she had to act fast.
“If he had said ‘this is your grandson’ I would have been suspicious,” Cheo told me. “But he said he was Tyler and he sounded sick.”
After wiring the money, Cheo said she called her son, but couldn’t reach him. And the more she thought about it, the less sense it made. Her grandson was only 16 and she wasn’t even aware that he had a driver’s license. And what was he doing in Montreal instead of being in Massachusetts.
So by the time the “lawyer” called back saying he received the $935 but needed more money, she said no.
“Somehow the caller knew my grandson’s name and relation to me, so pretended to be him with a bad cough and desperate sound. Then a so-called lawyer explained that he was in jail in Montreal due to an auto accident that was not his fault.”
She then got contacted her son, who reassured her that Tyler was safe at band camp and had never been in Montreal.
“It was dumb,” she said, “but I was so worried.”
She said if they had set up a secret code word, this would not have happened.
Cheo said she has no idea how the scammers knew her telephone number and her grandson’s name.
She filed a complaint with the East Lyme police, and Sgt. Blanchette said he wasn’t surprised.
With so much personal information on the Internet, he said, it’s easy for crooks to put family information together, especially using sites like Facebook.
But, he said, “so far, how they picked out this family is a mystery.”
He said the first complaint he saw was very similar, where the call also came from Montreal.
“This is the crime wave of the future,” he said, adding that similar scams involve hijacked email accounts.
Same thing happened to my mother in Palm Beach in April. Her grandson, Tyler (I guess this is a common name for scammers) was supposedly in jail in Montreal (when he was actually at college). She was asked for 3,000+!
Got the police involved and web-fraud experts, but they weren’t able to trace the perps.
from a reader
Just read the article about the “Jailed grandson” . There is also an e-mail scam going around that is similar. Below is an e-mail I received yesterday from my “nephew”:
Hello,
I am in a hurry writing this mail to you.I had gone (Spain) for an urgent situation and unfortunately for me all my money was stolen at the hotel where I lodged. I’m so confused right now and I do not know what to do or where you go my phone was stolen by robbers, but thank God I have saved my passport and the hotel phone lines were disconnected during the robbery incident so I have access to email only. Please can you help me with some loan today? so I can get my hotel bills to settle and let me go home.
As soon as I get home I would refund immediately. I look forward to reading from you soon.
Thank you.
Jon Manitta
From a reader in Western Connecticut
Regarding your scam article…
This same thing happened to my 91 year old aunt.
She lives in St. Pete, Fla. And was told that her grandson was in jail in Mexico.
Because she does not drive she went to the staff at the assisted living building and they made phone calls and determined that this was a scam.
She was ready to withdraw all of her funds from the bank.
So, it is widespread.
How do they know the right names of the grandchildren?
Good question. My guess is Facebook.
Very easy to get names. Do a search, Google or Bing, on any name. There are web pages to click on that will give many many names, their ages and a list relatives and the city they live in. Pick an old person. For a few dollars you can get all their information including address and phone number. As I said it’s easy. $10.00 spent and over $900.00 back, not a bad return for scamming just one grandparent. I am surprised that Sgt Blanchette of East lyme PD dosen’t know this information This is very very common. Education is the only defense..Always call a parent or relative BEFORE sending or wiring any money anywhere. These thieves are getting rich, and it’s tax free – for the thieves.
Notice from the examples above that these scammers – who are likely not Americans – don’t use language the way Americans do. Who in this country says “lodged” – we say stayed. Keep an eye out for odd uses of language, foreign spellings, etc., and you’ll be on your way to recognizing these creeps.
My parents were bilked out of a similar amount of money in a similar scam. The caller did not know the correct grandson’s name, but knew how to get it — said “this is your grandson, don’t you recognize my voice?” My mom asked whether it was “Justin.” My parents live in Conn and this happened to them two summers ago. We filed reports and complaints to anyone and everyone who was willing to listen. My parents actually did get some money back as part of a class action taken against MoneyGram. Wal Mart also should be culpable. They snag in elderly shoppers with cheap goods, and, it seems to me some simple training on the part of whoever mans those MoneyGram booths would help stop a lot of this. Wiring money to Canada should be a huge red flag and one they warn customers about. These people are the worst scum in my mind and companies such as Wal Mart and Money Gram are also to blame.