Impersonators Scam Another Grandpa
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Grandparent's Scam
A local man is on a mission after he was victimized.
NBC 4
A local man is on a mission after he was victimized by a scheme that targets the elderly.
JOHNSTOWN, Ohio—A local man is on a mission after he was victimized by a scheme that targets the elderly.
NBC 4’s Mike Bowersock reported the FAST FACTS on this crime trend.
The latest scam involved an 82-year-old Johnstown man.
Don Perkins received a phone call last week from someone who claimed to be his grandson.
The impersonator said he was in Canada, was in an accident and needed thousands of dollars to get out of the police station.
Unfortunately, it’s a common scheme called “The Grandparent’s Scam.“
In Perkins’ case, someone else got on the phone and claimed to be an officer.
“This other voice comes on and says, ‘It’s Sgt. Adams with the Ottawa, Canada, police,‘ and I said, ‘What do you mean?‘ “
The so-called officer said Perkins was going to have to pay $2,300 in damage.
So, Perkins did as the officer asked – and then was asked to send thousands more.
He did.
Perkins called his grandson who answered his home phone.
The grandson wasn’t ever in Canada.
Perkins knows he was taken and has been handing out fliers to ensure no one else falls prey.
Dozens of Web sites warn of the scheme, including AARP.org.
It’s listed as the eighth most popular way to defraud people out of their money after bogus fuel-saving devices.
The local FBI said it has heard of this happening to other people locally and recently.
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Reader Reactions
This scam will never stop as long as people keep believing everything they hear. If grandma or grandpa (or anyone else) is so gorped out that they fall for this, then they should lose their phone privileges. All of these scams - phone, e-mail, door-to-door, only work because people keep being silly and believing them. And until people wise up the scammers will take advantage. Catching one or even ten of them isn’t going to make any difference at all.
This happened to my granmother earlier this year!! Apparently I was in canada as well and had hit a car and arrested for DUI…well I wasn’t. But she almost sent the money too. I hope they catch these people
This scam hits close to home as my father-in-law in Coshocton has had 2 calls of this nature. On the 1st, he took the money to be wired at the local WalMart where a clerk warned him not to do it. He didn’t fortunately. After a good bit of frantic activity that involved much of the family, we finally determined that our son (his grandson) was clueless about the whole business. It is frightening when it happens in your family. No one is harder to separate from his money than my f-i-l, but when he’s convinced that it’s his grandson, he was willing to send the money. It’s spooky to read the articles here about this scam, and know that it’s the exact same scam that we faced.
Grandpa Perkins is the dangerous one here. As the article says, it’s a common scheme. The only way to get these people to stop using the scheme is for everyone to wise up. The question is how many years it will take before people grow brains.
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