Over the past several months, I’ve had an increased number of clients coming to me because they were victimized by a scam. Many of them involving emails or money wire transfers. That said, there are all types of scams out there and my next few posts are going to focus on some new scams that I have been hearing about. Anyone can fall victim, it doesn’t matter if you are young or old. My hope is that sharing this information that was passed on to me will save you from falling victim.
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“Grandchild in Need”
The scammer will call up an individual who has a grandchild. They will pretend to be the person’s grandchild, or someone affiliated with the grandchild, and will have some story about why the grandchild is in need of immediate money.
Some examples of the stories they tell are:
-Grandchild is in a foreign country (or sometimes in the US) and needs money because they got in trouble with the law
-Grandchild is sick somewhere (US or other country) and needs money to get home immediately or get treatment
-Grandchild is in an accident and needs money for themselves or the other party immediately
The “grandchild’s” situation is always very dire. The scammer sometime says, “hi do you know who it is….”, prompting the grandparent to guess a grandchild’s name, unknowingly giving them the name to use. Sometimes the scammer will pretend to be the grandchild’s friend or a police officer.
The scammer always tries to get immediate payment, often through Western Union or Money Transfer. The Grandparent, nervous their grandchild is in trouble, will be scammed into sending money.
More on this scam on AARP's website:
http://www.aarp.org/…/inf…/how-to-beat-grandparent-scam.html
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If you’re a grandparent you should be very careful of getting taken advantage of by this scam. You should never give names of your grandchildren to a person on the phone if they aren’t identifying themselves or if they are asking you to guess. If you get one of these calls, simply ask for the number that they can be called back at and do some work verifying if something is wrong with your grandchild.
Even though they are going to be pressuring you and telling you that your grandchild is in a dire situation and may die or be locked in jail, DON’T give them your information. In general, it’s best to never give out your bank account information or CC information to anyone over the phone unless it’s a trusted individual or company.
If you believe a loved one has been contacted by a scammer, contact the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office: (401) 274-4400 or consumers@riag.ri.gov
More scam info to come.
