WISCASSET, Maine — A Wiscasset woman is warning others after losing $12,000 to the “grandparent scam.”
“Little did I know,” said Esther Sharrigan, 78.
The grandmother of 13 feels vulnerable and violated.
She said it was 7:30 a.m. on a Monday in May when the phone rang at her home. The caller said, “Hi Grandma, this is your first-born grandson. Remember me?”
Sharrigan said he claimed he was in an accident and needed money for court fees.
“You’re still kind of groggy, you just got up, and then you get this call, and it really shoots you off balance,” she said.
Panicked, Sharrigan followed his instructions: don’t tell anyone, head to a nearby supermarket and buy $2,000 worth of prepaid money cards. She said the man called her cellphone as soon as she walked out of the store.
“He says, “OK, scratch off this number right here, scratch off the number, and read me the number,” Sharrigan said.
He asked her to go back two more times in a matter of hours. For three days, Sharrigan said, the man told her to get more and more money. She went to different stores on the midcoast, paying in cash each time.
“By this time it’s like, ‘Okay, when is this gonna end? I think this is a scam,’” Sharrigan said.
Twelve-thousand dollars later, she found out it was indeed a scam.
“You go through your heart, not your head,” she said.
Wiscasset Police Chief Jeff Lange said the scam is happening every day, not just on the midcoast, but across the country; and it’s targeting the elderly, often using social media to get personal information, such as the names of their family members.
“It’s unfortunate,” Lange said. “These people save up a lifetime of money, and they think they’re helping out a family member.”
Lange has subpoenaed the company that makes the prepaid cards but said it’s nearly impossible to recover the money. He said anyone who gets a suspicious call should immediately call that relative directly, and even law enforcement.
“Tell everyone, tell everyone you know and find out and do your due diligence,” Lange said.
It’s too little, too late for Sharrigan, but she hopes her story will help someone else.
“It’s a lesson learned,” Sharrigan said. “I don’t think we will get it back, but I want to tell the world.”
One of the retailers that sold the prepaid cards to Sharrigan released a statement to CBS 13, saying in part, “We have policies and procedures in place to help protect our consumers from gift card and other types of scams. … Our employees followed our procedures and asked her specific questions to protect her from being a victim of fraud. Again, it is unfortunate that this situation occurred.”