BANGOR, Maine — A local great-grandmother might have been the latest victim of a phone scam that would have sucked $1,200 from her pocket — if she hadn’t remembered something she saw in the paper last month.
Dottie Hamm, 75, got a call Thursday morning from a young man claiming to be her 27-year-old grandson. The man said he had been arrested while vacationing in Mexico and needed $1,200 to bail himself out of jail.
Hamm said the man didn’t sound like her grandson. The man’s voice sounded shaky, as though he was about to cry, so she chalked the strange voice up to the fact that her “grandson” was so upset.
“I asked him, ‘How the hell did you get to Mexico?’” Hamm said. The man said a friend had won a free trip, but that he now wished he hadn’t tagged along.
The man referred to Hamm “grammy” and her husband “grampy,” which Hamm questioned because their grandson has always called them “poppy” and “nana.” The man said jail officials were forcing him to call her grandma because “that’s what they call grandmothers.”
“I should’ve known right then,” Hamm said.
After a short conversation, the phone was passed off to another man, who claimed to be guarding Hamm’s grandson. The second man continued to demand money to secure Hamm’s grandson’s release.
“He was really belligerent,” Hamm said. “I think he was trying to scare me.”
Hamm said her suspicions were heightened at this point because she remembered an article she read a few weeks back in the newspaper.
On Feb. 18, the Bangor Daily News reprinted a Foster’s Daily Democrat article about an elderly Berwick “memere” who fell for a similar scam made by a man claiming to be her grandson. That man said he had been involved in a car crash while in the Dominican Republic for a friend’s wedding and needed money for bail.
Less than a week later, the BDN published an article about an elderly Arundel woman who was hoodwinked out of nearly $80,000 over the course of several months by people claiming she had won a Jamaican lottery.
A Bangor grandfather fell victim to scammers in late January, when a caller who sounded exactly like his grandson bilked him out of $7,000 to cover the costs of a car accident in Spain.
Similar scams have been reported by police in towns scattered across the state.
With these stories in mind, Hamm asked the man who claimed to be a guard to ask her “grandson” what his children’s names were. The “guard” dodged the question, saying he would have to travel all the way to the jail to question Hamm’s grandson.
At that point, Hamm said she was sure the call was a ploy and hung up the phone.
She then called her grandson’s parents, who said he was at home in New Hampshire getting ready for work.
Hamm called police to report that she had been a target of the scam, but police couldn’t do much, she said, because she didn’t have caller identification that could have tracked down the source of the call.
“My heart was pounding like a son of a gun,” Hamm said minutes after getting off the phone with police.
Hamm advised others who receive similar calls to pose questions that the relative who is supposedly in trouble would be able to answer easily. For example, ask for the names of their children or pets.
“That was the smart thing to do,” Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards said Thursday afternoon.
Edwards said that anyone receiving a similar call should confirm a relative’s whereabouts before sending money to help the person out of any supposed pickle in another country or state. Also, people shouldn’t give out personal, sensitive information over the phone, Edwards said.
Edwards said scams like this should be reported to police or the Federal Trade Commission at 877-382-4357. Having caller identification is extremely helpful in tracking down scam artists, he added.
“I’m so glad I saw [those stories] in the paper and knew it was a scam,” Hamm said.
Good job smelling the rat!
a rat is someone who rats someone out, she smelled a theif
thief
A rat can also just be a nasty dirty little rodent.
I think it fits here.
Rat works. Like ratfink, a generally undesirable person.
Way to go to this woman!
I dont know if this happens or not but wouldnt it be a great service to our elderly and perhaps all of us if seminars were conducted about this ? Police could go to retirment villages to speak about the issue. Or perhaps somehow information about these scams could be mailed to people with important information about how to recognize and prevent these types of scams?
I manage several assisted living facilities. I think I’ll send out a memo to warn our residents, thanks for the idea.
If I got that type of call I would know that it was bogus. However I know people prey on older folks who perhaps are a lot more trusting and less cynical that us younger folks. I think this preying on old folks is disgusting and the thought of anyone else getting taken in really makes me angry. Thanks for deciding to write those advisories.
It’s too bad there isn’t some bogus account # you could give them that would lead to someone in the FBI who could then track down these people!
Brilliant idea!
yeah, but then you would have to have the cooperation of the country that they are calling from. Nigeria will not cooperare, as this is their greatest source of income… bilking Americans who believe that the benevolent dictator is being deposed and needs to use YOUR bank account to hold his $65Million … just until he arrives safely in Swwitzerland.
There are things that can be done about the Nigerian scam.
Go here;
http://www.ebolamonkeyman.com/
that is wonderful she was alert enough to recall those stories and went through the proper steps in verifying things. hope others will also do the same.
Awesome job, Nana!
I really hope my 81 year old Mom would do as well as you did.
Please tell your story, tell it to anyone and everyone that will listen. Try to give others the courage and knowledge to handle a situation like this as well as you did.
My grandmother did. She asked the caller all kinds of questions that the caller couldn’t answer. I think she asked him which grandson was calling and he said something like “the youngest.” The problem is, I’m the only grandson.
Smart lady- trap them without them knowing it’s a trick question. I had a similar thought thinking the 27-year-old might not have kids. :)
It’s not just the elderly that these scammers try to bilk. I had a friend on my FB account pop in for chat one morning, saying she’d been mugged, just got out of the hospital, etc and needed money to get home. Knowing that hackers are getting into Facebook accounts everywhere, and the fact that this woman and I aren’t close (there are other people she could have turned to before coming to me), I kept asking her how Bob was, if Bob was ok. Since Bob (this friend’s brother) had died 15 years ago, and my ‘friend’ kept saying he was fine, I knew that it obviously wasn’t the owner of the FB account, but a hacker.
True, the elderly are more susceptible, but EVERYONE needs to be alert, and not fall victim to these scams.
Good job Nana, for being quick to ask questions that a scammer wouldn’t know!
I agree. I was almost had trying to get a babysitting job a couple years back. The “dad” was supposedly coming here for a job & needed a nanny for his 2 year old secured in advance. He said that his boss was mailing the payment for a month ahead of time, but that he made an error & I would have to wire the difference back. I didn’t write back and looked into scams. By the time I realized, his email address was deleted/disconnected.
Guess he figured all the details I wanted about the kid I was planning on babysitting weren’t worth the effort for the money. Probably got someone else to go along with it easier!
Hang up the phone without uttering a word. It’s that simple. With all the knowledge and exposure there has been in the news and on line about scammers, anyone who gets scammed today has to be incredibly ignorant or mentally retarded. I use the term mentally retarded respectfully acknowledging that a small percentage of people are born that way.
Hang up without a word!? These people are even more fun to lead on than telemarketers! If nothing else, I’ll at least run up their phone bill for awhile.
Exactly! Ask em how the weather is down there & tell them you’ll fly down & hand over the cash personally! Be right there tomorrow!
What if it actually were a family member in desperate need? I think I would at least let them get a few words in…If you’re smart enough to know these scammers are out there, you can probably decipher that a few questions after, “Hello?”
First of all the cops only need to get a judge to order her phone company to release the number that called her house. If they weren’t just plain lazy. Second of all, if you have elderly grandparents, parents, aunts or uncles have their phone set so it won’t receive private or blocked numbers. You’ll cut down on 99% of the scamming cons! There’s always the mail scams!
I agree! Several years ago I was a victim of identity theft. I tracked down the identity thief, got an address in Mississippi, and knew they were still using it to have goods delivered to them there. I contacted police, filed a report and inquired as to follow up since I had so much information. I was basically brushed off, and the PD said it was not their jurisdiction as it was another state. I asked how I could get this followed up on, and was told an officer would review it sometime, and if he/she felt it was worthwhile, they would send it over to the feds, but they would likely not follow up either.
This is precisely why we’re allowed to carry guns in this country. Go to the address in Mississippi, & kill everyone in the house. What jury would convict someone who killed a scammer??? You’ll become a National Hero!
The problem with blocking private or blocked numbers it that many doctors’ offices come through as “unavailable” or “private” so this isn’t the best solution.
What good would Caller ID do in a case like this? More than likely the thief would block the number so it would come up as unknown.
Exactly what I am thinking, not every scam artist is smart, but if you are making a call, that is like Scam 101
There are also devices that allow them to put in a fake number have have it show so you think you know where they are calling from.
That has happened to me. Someone claimed to be calling from a collection agency saying I owed money. They left a phone number, a tracking number and an extension number on my message machine. They never said what company they were trying to collect for.
I checked the number online to see who the collection company might be. The number was connected to a Transmission Shop in West Virginia. That collection company never called back either.
I don’t answer caller unknowns. That’s the reason I got caller I.D.
I thought providers (at least cell companies) could trace the number, blocked or not – anyone know for sure?
How about going along with the scam and get the address where the money is to be wired, or the bank account they want it deposited in and get them on the other end..
Yeah, send $1.00 through Western Union and track it! ^_^
Exactly!!
I dont understand that. I Western Union money to my wife at times when she is visiting her family. I have to fill out a form that lists her name EXACTLY as how it is on her ID. Then I have to give her the Money Transfer Control Number which she then has to give to the clerk at the Western Union Office.
These types of frauds cannot take place with one phonecall only. If you fall for the scam you have to go out of your home, go to Western Union or the Bank to wire the money and then come back and either call the person or wait for them to call you. In the meantime wouldnt your thoughts be, should I call my grandsons mother? Why are they letting my family member make more than one call from jail? Things like this? Well thats what I would think anyway. However I know that these criminals pray on older folks that perhaps are a bit more trusting.
Your ID about a memo to your residents is a great idea.
Thank you – you gave me the idea. :)
If you have some time to read, check out the link below. A guy in England really outsmarts the scammers. He’s gotten Nigerians to post for ridiculous pictures, send him stuff, and even send him cash. He creates his own fake identities and lures them with the prospect they have hooked a sucker.
http://www.419eater.com/
I looked up flight info from NY to Nigeria and sent it to one guy- time, date and all when I’d be arriving. Told him to wait at the airport with a limo and I’d be bringing a suitcase of money. Wonder what ever happened to him? Probably was living in Yemen or something and didn’t know where Nigeria actually was.
Why did he think you would bring a suitcase of money from NY to Nigeria?
Smart lady.
I think I would probably say something like, “Gosh, how did you get all the way to Mexico… at the age of seven!?”
These scammers must have some way to identify elders who have adult grandchildren. Or else they just quickly hang up on the rest of us and move down their list of numbers to call.
It would be interesting to know the statistics on the ratio of elderly who are successfully scammed versus the ones like this lady who are too sharp to let it happen to them. I’m willing to bet that, sadly, that for every 10-20 calls that scammers make, they latch onto at least one who bites and gets suckered. That puts their “success rate” at 5-10%, probably high enough for them to justify continuing their scam.
No one is asking how they new she had a grandson? Someone in the family is posting way too much info on Facebook, Myspace, etc….. People be careful how much you put out there. There are web sites which, with a little work, will allow you can get someones personally listed info even though you are not “friended”
you go Grammy!!!!
I’m glad this woman wasn’t conned. I wonder how these scammers know where to find elderly people and the names of their grandsons.
Google Search “Epic owning of Nigerian scammers” Kinda cruel, but funny.
I love it when these scammers call me. I always try to keep them on the line as long as possible just to mess with their heads. I had one guy convinced I was the ambassador of Yakastonia and I was in the US raising money for our nations independence from the Soviet union. He got really confused when I started asking him to send me a check.
Smart lady for sure.I’m so glad she didn’t get ripped off.
Another reason for protecting your private info from Fakebook.com. These scammers can know your kids names, their pets names, where you live, when you graduated high school, what day you got married, and loads of other because the lemmings of Fakebook.com hand over this info with out any regard to who or how it will be used.
Fakebook as you call it is not that bad, i lost my sister when mom and dad passed away no contact at all, for six years, facebooked her found her, i think you just need to realize it does good things, and yes its bad in some ways