Grandparents Scam

[Lyndon Laney]

Just a reminder as I know a lot of folks on here are Grandparents ,So a little heads up Beware of a call from a Grand child who claims to be in some sort of trouble and needs imidiate cash to get home. Most of these claim to be from Canada. We got one yesterday asking for 3000 dollars. Just ask the so called Grand child a question that only they would know and the caller will hang up. Seems to me the more folks are aware of this and are prepared. we will have less takers.

[Karalyn]

Thanks for the heads up Lyndon

[Bobbie Mayer]

Another variation is the email from London (or some other location abroad) and they want you to wire cash.

[DonDeutsch]

I have seen at least one or two of these. I remember thinking why would anyone send money without being able to verify identity of the recipient?

[Donna D.]

I can think of a couple of reasons people fall for this. 1) Not being informed about this type of scam. 2) which leads to making quick, heart felt decisions.

My own parents, who are quite elderly, lead a pretty sheltered life... would fall 100% for this. They only have one granddaughter who's their pride and joy. My Mom would give anything anyone asked if she thought it was necessary to help her granddaughter.

It's my responsibility to keep these people informed of all this #$%^. Which has also included phony phone calls about a missed jury duty... and wanting a credit card number to cover the "fine."

[Lyndon Laney]

[QUOTE=Donna D.;243599]I can think of a couple of reasons people fall for this. 1) Not being informed about this type of scam. 2) which leads to making quick, heart felt decisions.

My own parents, who are quite elderly, lead a pretty sheltered life... would fall 100% for this. They only have one granddaughter who's their pride and joy. My Mom would give anything anyone asked if she thought it was necessary to help her granddaughter.




This is why I posted on this site not that it has anything to do with fiberglass . but I know that if I had known of this sort of scam the phone call wouldn't have lasted as long. But i stayed on the line for some time before my mind settled down to the facts and after a few personal questions I knew this was not my Grandson.As per the net some 3and 1/ 2
million has been lost by older folks who fell for this.

[Bobbie Mayer]

See this article about spear phishing. If you or your family had any accounts that were hacked at Epsilon (such as Chase bank) the phishers now may have lots of personal information to use in scams like this, making the email look much more official.

[Ian-Vicki]

Just suggestion to change the thread title to scam warning or something. I neither sm nor have grandparents and might easily have missed this. It's not just old people who are vulnerable.
cheers
Ian

[Lyndon Laney]

Originally Posted by Ian-Vicki

Just suggestion to change the thread title to scam warning or something. I neither sm nor have grandparents and might easily have missed this. It's not just old people who are vulnerable.
cheers
Ian

Right although this one is aimed at Grandparents. They aren't realy that smart all they have is some information on you mostly age They begin with HELLO grandma. You say who is this and they reply Your favorite grand child . and now you supply the name and they agree. They seem to be almost in tears and never let you realy get into many questions as they come up with something like a DUI and how ashamed they are to call you and want no one else to know then ask you to talk to a law officer After he starts his tale you can no longer talk to the Grandchild as he only has one call and has been taken back to a cell.

[CarolMarie]

Funny this should come up because just yesterday I got an email from a friend's email address stating that she is in London and someone had stolen her wallet and credit cards and she needed money desperately. The weird thing is my friend did fly to Paris last week and could have been in a side trip to London. For a few moments they "got me" and then I realized she was with a friend and did not mention her at all. I don't know if my friend had purchased airline tickets on line and that is how they got into her "mailbox" or if it was just a coincidence that she happened to be away. I tried to forward the message to her email address and it came back as undeliverable. I can see though how someone could fall for it. However, it did not have my name in the greeting...just "
you'll never guess what just happened..." Can't wait to warn her when she gets back.

Carol

[Cyndi B.]

Since we don't have grandchildren to do this to us I should ask Send Money #1 and Send Money #2 "Is this a scam?"

[Alf S.]

Hi: All...I've already been thru this via email. My friend who was supposed to be in London Eng., I knew for a fact was on his way to pickup a new Fg. Trailer (Brand on request). Since Europe was the exact opposite direction...I called him to see if he had taken a wrong turn!!!
His email had been "HACKED" and my messages were some of the last ones inboxed.
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[Byron Kinnaman]

This started about a year ago or more. I belong to a local ham radio club and one of the members had his email account stolen including his address book. Many club member got an email that he was stranded in London. Fortunately many of us had just heard on our radios and knew it false.
However it took a long time for the razzing to end.

[Greg H]

My Dad fell for one after my Mom died, He sent through Western Union $1,500.00 to somebody in the Northwest in my mothers name. The idea was to change the $1,500.00 into a much larger amount of money, He was 80 years old at that time and very confused after my mothers death.

[Flygal]

so no=one wants to send me 3,000 ? dang

[Carol H]

I can see how someone might fall for it. An elderly member of my family called me a couple of months ago because she had received such a call and was wanting me to confirm the where abouts of all her grandsons just in case it really was one of her grandsons. It wasnt of course but the guy got lucky in that she did in fact have a grandson of the name he used and he was in fact traveling at the time.

[SherryNPaul]

Phishers and scammers are busy folks. One way to avoid helping them is to always use BCC if you're sending an email to more than one recipient, especially people who don't know each other. This keeps the email addresses of all recipients on the list private. Not only is it good "netiquette", but using BCC can help keep your friends safe from scammers who hijack an email account.
I'm sure many of you have friends who love to forward the email jokes and stories that they find interesting. Sometimes, in a forward, I'll receive a list of twenty or thirty email addresses that have been forwarded... and I know no one on the list but the most recent forwarder. It makes me very uncomfortable to see my email included in the list. I've explained how to use BCC to many friends and family members.

It's easy to use BCC. If you don't know how, and aren't using it, google BCC, and your service, and you'll find easy instructions.

Sherry