Friday, October 22, 2010

Important!

This post cannot wait! I just found out that Mr.4444's mom was scammed today via telephone! Here's what happened:

"Kyle" called her, crying. He said, "Grandma, I need your help! I've been in a car accident and am in big trouble--I hit a foreign diplomat, Grandma, and they say I need $4000 for bail. Can you help me? I don't want mom and dad to know. I really need your help."

He even put the "police officer" in charge of the scene on the telephone. The explained that because "Kyle" had hit a foreign diplomat, it was complicated. He gave her the information for where to send the money.

Of course, Grandma 4444 did what any loving grandma would do--She hurried to the bank to wire the money! Thankfully, on her way home from wiring the money, her "crap detector," as Mr.4444 calls it) went off, and she called the real Kyle, who told her that he had NOT been in an accident and had NOT called her.

She raced back to Western Union and was able to cancel the transaction. She will get all of her money back, though some of it will be tied up for a few weeks.

Later in the day, the "court" person called and said something about how confusing the process is and he tried again to get her to go back to the bank. She hung up without letting him finish.

I'm writing this to implore you to warn any grandma/grandpa you know who could fall victim to this. This is not some email chain letter; it really truly happened today to Grandma 4444. She is a very capable woman with a good head on her shoulders. Clearly, her emotions got in the way of her fully-functioning crap detector for a while. Thank heaven it shifted back into gear in time to cancel the transaction.

The scary thing is that I warned both grandmas about this very scam a couple of months ago. I had heard about it and knew they were both vulnerable to something like this. I guess Grandma 4444 wasn't listening when I was talking! (Damned Dancing with the Stars!)


P.S. As long as I'm on here, I'm going to tell you something else that is important and completely unrelated: Dawn, of Bee and Rose is having a Spooktactular Giveaway, and you know how much we love Halloween around here, so I'm entering! (You should, too!)

36 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing this. I know someone who had a similar thing happen last week, but was completely taken financially. So glad Grandma 4444 is getting her money back!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm so glad her crap detector went off.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gosh people suck sometimes =( I'm glad she realized what was going on before it was too late!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank god she came to her senses! How did they get her number and know to use Kyle name...unbelievable!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I see this much too often. There are several retirement communities in the area where I work, and there are seminars to bring scams like this to their attention. Good thing she caught it in time.

    But my question is did the caller use the name 'Kyle', or did he just say "grandma" ?

    ReplyDelete
  6. This happened to my husband's grandmom...luckily she called to verify with us, and it was prevented.

    Glad she figured it out before the money was gone! So scary that there are people out there that prey on other's emotions!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Just the other day I was reading a column about this senior scamming in the Chicago Tribune (email if you want it). Years back my wife's grandma when to the bank to "help the FBI with their investigation". Luckily for her a teller knew her and asked her why she was withdrawing a large amount of money.

    ReplyDelete
  8. oh one more thought - does grandma have caller ID and a voicemail system? that could help.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank goodness her "crap detector" went off before it was too late. Very scary.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow, those sneaky people. I'm glad the mister's mom figured it out before it was too late.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am so glad that she will get her money back. This kind of thing just makes my stomach turn!

    Traci

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm so glad to hear that she figured it out before on time to get the money back!

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a relief to learn your Mom was at least able to cancel the processing of that money order! It boggles the mind though when thinking about how many people still manage to get caught in scams like this, doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  14. What?!?! That's terrible. The bad karma these guys are earning is going to cost THEM in the end.

    Thanks for the giveaway tip. I love Halloween too.

    Happy weekend, jj

    ReplyDelete
  15. That's scary. I'm sharing this on my Facebook page - most of my family is connected there. Hopefully the others will be made aware. We are such a disjointed family - something like this could get past one of us.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Something very similar happened to my MIL about 3 years ago. Someone called saying her son was in a Canadian jail because he had been in a DUI accident after attending a concert in Toronto. Keep in mind that her son was 50 plus and living in Seattle. Yes, we are quite hip, but there is NO WAY he would attend a concert without ME in Toronto or EVEN Vancouver for that matter! Anyway his mom, my MIL, knew something was 'fishy' and she called us right away. The scamsters must have been fairly convincing. I answered her call as Chris was mowing the lawn. She could only be reassured by calling him into the house to talk with her.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wow. Lucky for her she realized it before it was too late! It's crazy how those scammers get as much information that they do.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Grandma 4444 thought he said he was Kyle, but I suspect that he just said, "Grandma" and her fear kicked in.

    She has caller ID (I think!) Guess I'll check that!

    ReplyDelete
  19. How crazy! I'm glad that she has that good crap detector.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I just found your blog and love this idea! I have signed up as a new follower and have linked up as #11. I look forward to getting to know you and hope you'll join me at Create With Joy!

    I'm glad your grandma's intuition kicked in in the nick of time and she was able to ward off disaster!

    Have a wonderful weekend!

    Ramona
    http://create-with-joy.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  21. Good thing she was able to stop the transaction. Your mom is one smart lady having the good sense to call to confirm it was Kyle.

    ReplyDelete
  22. How scary! It is so rude how they "prey" on the older people like that. And wow - they are getting smarter using multiple people to pose in different aspects of the legal system.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Unbelievable! When will these things stop?! Glad she'll get her money back

    ReplyDelete
  24. If any of us get a call like that the first thing we should do is call the person who is supposedly calling us. Good thing your mom had her thinking cap on.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Thanks for visiting my blog. So glad you found me.

    ReplyDelete
  26. I'm glad she's going to be able to get her money back!

    ReplyDelete
  27. That is just awful. It makes me so mad that people think that stealing from others is the way to make a living. Thankfully gramma figured it out before real financial damage was done.

    Kristin _ The Goat

    ReplyDelete
  28. Yep, this very same scam is happenin' to kind folks 'round here. I hate it how they always prey on elderly people. So glad Mrs. 4444's has a built in alarm system, it could of turned out much worse!

    Have a great weekend and thanks for the warning!!! :o)

    ReplyDelete
  29. Ugh that bites. But then again, the email going around about being mugged overseas and blah blah has had more than one friend of mine commenting to me (days later) - boy I really hope X is ok. Did you hear what happened to her in London? Egads! Bad people!

    ReplyDelete
  30. I wouldn't have believed this but my MIL's neighbor did the same thing thinking her grandson was in jail. She didn't have a crap detector, however, and lost her money. Not sure how much but it was too much for her. Jeez.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I wouldn't have believed this but my MIL's neighbor did the same thing thinking her grandson was in jail. She didn't have a crap detector, however, and lost her money. Not sure how much but it was too much for her. Jeez.

    ReplyDelete
  32. It doesn't have to be a senior citizen although these bastards do prey on them. I was scammed this summer.

    http://www.mamasick.com/2010/08/i-was-scammed-and-dont-want-you-to-be/

    This brings back a memory over 10 years ago when someone called me whispering, claiming to be my boyfriend (now my husband), saying he was really drunk and wanted to engage me in sexual conversation. This was not my boyfriends M.O. so I hung up and called him asking if he was okay. He said, "I didn't call you, what's going on?" I was all alone and so scared.

    ReplyDelete
  33. It doesn't have to be a senior citizen although these bastards do prey on them. I was scammed this summer.

    http://www.mamasick.com/2010/08/i-was-scammed-and-dont-want-you-to-be/

    This brings back a memory over 10 years ago when someone called me whispering, claiming to be my boyfriend (now my husband), saying he was really drunk and wanted to engage me in sexual conversation. This was not my boyfriends M.O. so I hung up and called him asking if he was okay. He said, "I didn't call you, what's going on?" I was all alone and so scared.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Same thing, little different story, happened to my boss's mom. Definite creeps!

    ReplyDelete
  35. This happened to MY parents! The caller said the same thing, Grandma and he said he went on a roadtrip with friends and I didn't know about it and he had a terrible car accident and needed money and she said to my dad here you take it and when my dad got on the phone the caller said Hi grandpa...we don't call my dad grandpa we call him Poppy...that gave it all away but my mom was shooken up a bit afterwords, but now we can joke about it...man those people suck.

    ReplyDelete

Your 2 cents...