Grandparent Scam

My MIL in MT got a call today saying "Hi, Grandma it's me your grandson" She said, "who" and named off names. The person on the phone chose my son's name and proceeded to tell her he had gone to Mexico for a wedding and got into trouble, was in jail, in danger, needed $3,500 wired to a friend who was paying the other half of $7,000 for a car accident, and proceeded to beg her not to tell his mom or dad.

She went to the bank and an alert bank teller became suspicious but could not talk her out of tranferring the money. Luckily the teller knew my MIL's other daughter (SIL) who works in a nearby bank and was able to convince her to talk to her daughter first. My MIL was so convinced that she would not leave without a money order made for the amount and reluctantly went talk to my SIL and the transaction was stopped.

Don't know what else to say other than this cleaverly conducted scam hit close to home and to beware out there. Maybe inform the elders that this is going on.

 

Just found this:

http://senioralertmedical.com/701/beware-of-the-grandparent-scam

Pretty much exactly what happened.