AUBURN, Maine — Betty Lugner, 76, was scammed out of $985, and wants to warn others about phone calls asking for money to rescue a grandchild.
Lugner, 76, is a widow, grandmother of six and great-grandmother of five. She has Parkinson’s disease, and lives on Social Security in an Auburn apartment.
On Friday afternoon her phone rang. “It was a man. He said, ‘We have your grandson at the embassy in Mexico.’ The man said if they didn’t have the money, he’d have to go in a cell.”
With all the drug violence in Mexico, Lugner was afraid for her grandson. “Just the thought of him being down there with the shooting on the streets down there. It was the worst feeling in the world.”
The caller told Lugner they picked up her grandson the night before, there was cocaine in his car, they tested him for drugs and he came out clean. But the implication was that her grandson was being set up and headed to jail.
“They kept saying, ‘Don’t say anything to anyone about this.’ They wanted me to talk to him. So I talked to him.”
Another male voice posing as her grandson spoke, starting with, “Hi Gram.” Her grandson calls her “gram,” not “grandma” or “nana.”
“He said, ‘What I’m going to tell you you can’t ever, ever, ever tell anyone.’ I thought that was strange,” Lugner said. Her grandson is 18 and lives in Poland. She had seen him a few days ago. She asked how he got to Mexico.
“He said, ‘A buddy of mine’s father owns a motel down here. We were going down here to see him.’”
Lugner told the men she didn’t have $985 but had a credit card. He told her to go to her credit union, get a cash advance, then go to Walmart and “Money Gram,” or wire, the cash to a number they gave her. “They kept telling me to do it as soon as possible because the embassy’s going to close.”
She did as they said.
At Walmart the clerk who handled the Money Gram, as well as the manager, questioned Lugner if she was being scammed. She insisted the money be sent.
“I wasn’t taking any chances,” Lugner said. “I kept saying, ‘What if it was Chris.’ If they put him in jail down there they’d beat him to a pulp.” While at Walmart “I was a wreck,” she said. “I was shaking all over. ”
Her friend, Marge Chaplin, was with her when she got the phone call, went to the credit union and Walmart. Chaplin suspected it was a scam and said so to Lugner.
But, Chaplin said, when the call came in the caller ID said “embassy,” the man didn’t have any accent sounding somewhat legitimate, and the callers had the grandson’s name and other personal information correct.
Afterward, Chaplin and Lugner went back to Lugner’s apartment. Upset and frightened, “I sat here in a fog all night,” Lugner said.
Then came a knock on the door. Her grandson came in looking for pants to wear to a ceremony.
The women called the Auburn Police Department and filed a complaint, but the money was gone.
They Googled the phone number the money was wired to, the number was from Quebec, Canada, “quite a ways from Mexico,” Chaplin said.
Lugner contacted her credit card company; because it was fraud she’ll be reimbursed, she said. But what happened has left her shaken.
She wants others aware and prevent someone else from being victimized. If it happened again she’d do things differently, she said.
What happened to Lugner is “a classic target-the-grandparents scam,” Auburn Deputy Chief Jason Moen said Monday. People call saying a grandchild is in jail.
“They know just enough about the grandchild and grandparents to make it seem real. Between Google and Facebook, it’s amazing what you can find out about anyone,” Moen said.
If anyone gets the kind of call Lugner did, “the best thing to do is contact family members to see where the person in question is, and always get a callback number,” Moen said.
One huge red flag is that the state department would never ask for money, he said.
“It’s not going to happen.”
The moral of this story is: Communicate with your family more often.
Sad that people are still falling for this scam.
A call to him or his parents could’ve saved her the trip to Squalmart.
The reason why this scam is so successful is that older people are more likely not to question authority; in this case the supposed law enforcemnet officer that claimed to have her grandson. I think that this lady should be congratulated for her courage in telling her story.
I’m aware of all that, but she was not alone. Two at the store plus her friend were suspicious and had warned her.
you are right about that
It is very sad that people are still falling for this—There has certainly been enough warnings. No one thinks why everything is supposed to be kept so quiet, or how did your grandchildren manage to get a passport so quickly to go out of the country. These were the first things I asked when this was done to me nearly 3 years ago. Plus, my grandson knows that I never have money laying around! That was the give-a-way!–I was hung up on after asking them more questions!!
“Life is tough. Even tougher if you are stupid.”
J. Wayne
Gotta give her credit for telling the story to prevent others from
getting clipped.
I believe thats a magic jack number,they show up as Escondido,Ca.Possibly they may be able to offer law inforcement with the ip addy that it was hooked to at the time the call was made.Yes I also own a magic jack and thats the city and state that shows when I call anyone with it,but thats not even close to my number (area code).
Luckily she used a credit card so she is out nothing. I cant believe people just hand over money to anybody.
How do you figure she’s out nothing? Credit cards protect you from fraudulent charges NOT authorized by the cardholder, as in cases of identity theft. Yes, she was scammed, but she authorized the transaction by going to her credit union and getting a cash advance before going to Walmart to wire the money.
Get this, folks. A scammer is not going to give you time to make a bunch of calls to check things out. They’re not going to give you a call back number. They’re going to say there’s no time to wait. Unless you can do your “checking” on a cell phone while the scammer waits, there’s a good chance he’ll hang up.
We need a way to lock in the caller’s number and location etc. with the push of a button while we’re still on the line?
Go for it, techies.
wait until obiecare is done with her.This scam will be cheap in comparison.
2 walmart employees and a friend tried to warn her. I think this woman needs to have a legal guardian appointed by a court. I doubt the part about her getting a refund. It’s just wishful thinking. The cash advance on her card was not fraud. She authorized it and she received the cash. That completes the transaction with her credit card company satisfactorily.
Here’s another one to tell folks about- my mother, who is elderly, got a phone call today from a woman who stated that she, as a senior citizen, would be getting a new medical card from the federal government. She had my mother’s birth date and address, then wanted my mother to give her the name of her bank! My mother said that she wouldn’t give out personal information and hung up. The caller spoke broken English. I advised my mom to call the Attorney General’s office tomorrow and report it. There are a number of scams aimed at the elderly right now. I feel bad for this woman but it sounds like several people tried to talk her out of sending the money. What a sick society we live in.
I feel terrible for the lady. Nobody should have to go through that. These scammers seem to find seniors their favorite target.
This is why I always tell family and friends to be skeptical especially about anonymous calls. When they find the call suspicious, hang up and report the phone number to Callercenter so others are warned. It breaks my heart to read articles such as this.