I got a phone call this morning that started out " Grampa? I was in a wreck. I got 13 stitches in my arm and a neck brace. They gave me a shot of morphine. I ran into a diplomat and he wants to press charges. Here, talk to my lawyer."
Lawyer gets on phone. “Your grandson is in a lot of trouble. Because he was speeding and not wearing a seat belt and ran into a person with diplomatic immunity BLAH BLAH BLAH.” Long story short. They wanted me to send $1970.00 by western union to his name in Madrid, Spain.
I called my wife, who called our son-in-law who put our grandson on the phone. He has been home the last two days and doesn’t know a diplomat nor a lawyer.
We went to the police station to report it and was told the call probably came from Canada or another country outside of the USA. The policeman taking the report said his parents received a similar call and fell for it.
I just want you to know that there are scammers out there who play on us old folks. If you send the money you will never get it back. Thank God I had my wife call the kids. Check it out instead of paying out. Jim
That scam has been around for a good length of time. When I was working for a major hotel company a similar call came to one of the hotels with a story of the general manager being in some similar type of trouble. Any time someone you do not personally know wants you to send them money by Western Union get your antenna up. That money can be picked up at any Western Union station, which are not at the train depot anymore, around the world. It is very difficult, if not impossible, for the police to catch the person receiving the money.
We got a call similar to that when our son was in Iraq. I ask the guy why he wasn’t dead. He fumbled around a bit then I told him my son is a Marine fighting in the Iraq war and Marines usually kill everyone or have a plan to kill everyone, they ask questions later. He hung up.
Same thing, only different…
This was in the form of an e-mail from my wifes niece. She had been robbed at gunpoint and had no money to get home, and would we send the $1,500. to Ireland. I knew she was going to school and not out of the country. It was her actual e-mail address that had been hacked.
A friend of mine’s Facebook account for broken into . . . I got an instant message one evening saying she was in London, England and had lost her purse and ticket home, and needed money for a plane ticket. I almost fell for it. But something kept telling me not to . . . I emailed her later at a work address I had for her, she had not been out of the country. Scammer!
