Quick thinking kept an 86-year-old area woman from being scammed out of more than $4,000.
The woman received a phone call, purportedly from her grandson, saying he'd gotten in trouble in Canada and needed $4,600 wired to him to pay his bond.
Ready to send the money, the woman talked it over with another family member who urged her to investigate further. Together, they called the grandson and discovered he was still in Kansas exactly where he was supposed to be. They planned to report the incident to authorities.
The phone call is a variation of a scheme called "granny scams," according to information in Gazette files.
Back in December, Lyon County Undersheriff Richard Old reported that the scam was being seen in Kansas. He provided this description of the scam from the Federal Bureau of Investigation — 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 FBI agent wrote in the December alert.
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.
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.