They’re not called “granny scams” for nothing.
Perpetrators of the scams prey on grandparents — the people most likely to help a grandchild out of a pinch without letting the child’s parents know what’s happened.
The problem is, there is no “pinch,” and the money the alleged grandchild needs immediately goes directly into the pocket of the scammer.
Lyon County Undersheriff Richard Old reminded area residents this week that the scam has surfaced again in the Midwest.
“I know that we have these types of scams with great regularity,” Old said. “I just want to remind people that there are all kinds of scams, whether they come in over the Internet, or whether they come in over the phone.”
Old included a written description of a typical “granny scam,” provided by a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent stationed in Kansas. Several thousand households in Ohio and eastern Indiana received the calls in recent weeks.
The granny scam, with minor variations, has been a popular one this year. The calls usually come from an unidentified male who tells the would-be victim that his or her grandchild needs help. And the caller is armed with personal information about the grandchild.
“The caller identified the grandchild and grandchild’s college by name and urged the grandparent not to contact the parents because the child was supposed to be at school,” the agent wrote.
The grandparents in this case were then directed to wire money to Canada.
Past scams have used a younger person representing himself as the grandchild and saying that he’d had an accident or been arrested and needed money immediately. Of course, the caller wanted that negative information kept from his parents, so he contacted the grandparents for help. The problem was, the caller was not the victim’s grandson and there was no pressing problem involving law enforcement.
“There is a concentrated effort on the part of criminals to prey on senior citizens,” Old said, “whether it’s ... home repairs or send money to help out your kids.
“There are all kinds of scams. People just need to be aware that they can’t trust folks over the telephone or over the Internet.”
Catching the scammers is a near-impossible task for local law-enforcement officers. However, two national Web sites are collecting information on the scams and collating it in a concerted effort to protect the public.
People who believe they have been contacted by a scam artist may report the details at www.ic3.gov or www.onlineonguard.gov.