Florida woman loses over $700,000 in 'grandparent scam'

[packman]

Investigators are asking Uber for records as they investigate the theft of more than $700,000 from an 82-year-old Florida woman who apparently fell for a “grandparent scam."

Over the summer, the scammers convinced the woman that her granddaughter was in legal trouble and needed her help. They told her to make withdrawals from her bank and hand the money over to a courier, according to court records in the case.

It was not clear whether the rides were for couriers to come to the woman's house to get the cash, and the sheriff's office declined to clarify that point, citing an ongoing investigation, the Times reported.

The woman received the first call from a young woman, claiming to be her granddaughter. She said she had been in a car accident and needed money to get out of jail, according to court records. A man who claimed to be the granddaughter's lawyer then took the phone and spoke to the woman.





https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/cm/florida-woman-loses-over-700-123746622.html

[OLDMDDEM]

1. I had this happen to me.

The person said "Hi Grampa." My grandkids do not call me that, so I asked the person what his birthday was. He hung up.

[malaise]

9. You kept your head

The most important thing is not to panic and ask real questions. Scammers are everywhere.

[OLDMDDEM]

11. Thank you

Yes but it was hard to do.

[malaise]

12. Yes and no

There is no one on the planet who can call me and tell me I won a lottery if I hadn't bought a ticket.
Further if you tell me a member of my family is in trouble, I'll put you on hold and contact siblings to check on them, their kids and their grandkids. Then, like you, I'll use family details to expose the scammer.

[womanofthehills]

13. Me too - my grandson called me from "Mexico" needing cash because

He was in a car accident. The caller said - this is your grandson L….. My grandson just says Hey Grandma when he calls. He rarely ever calls - he only tests me. Asked how he drove to Mexico in one day from when I last saw him and why was he speaking with a New Jersey accent? Guy hung up.

Last month it happened again - he was supposedly calling me from the hospital - a kid who only texts.

[VarryOn]

2. A good reason to never answer a call...

From a phone number you don’t know.

[jimfields33]

3. At the very least, she should have said, 'I'll call you right back."

[JudyM]

4. My dad got a call like this, the person using an actual name of one of his grandsons.

Same deal, in trouble, needed the money right away. Fortunately I was there, took the phone after several minutes, rapid hang-up ensued. My mother likely wouldn’t have fallen for it in the end but both of them had elevated emotions in the moment and were touched that their “grandson” was reaching out to them in confidence because he was embarrassed and didn’t want to call his folks.

What total pieces of scum these fraudsters are.

[Hav]

10. People often wonder why some fall

for obvious scams but it's completely different when you are directly confronted with the situation in contrast to observing it from the outside.

I noticed that after a talk with a car salesman. During the conversation I thought that he's such a nice, honest dude. But 10 minutes after the interaction, it suddenly hit me that he went through every known salesman trick to manipulate me.

These scam victims aren't given those 10 minutes to think rationally and they need someone to snap them out of it like you did with your dad.

[JudyM]

14. Right, and it's compounded by not having good enough hearing to pick up subtle voice differences

over the phone even if the senior is with it intellectually. They’re confronted with an “emergency” and are being sold by sharing this “secret” in “reliance” on their love. The seniors want so badly to feel competent and important to their grandkids. Playing on this makes it an especially vile crime, not to mention that they end up feeling super foolish to the family if they fall for it.

Good that you had time to pull away and evaluate the situation… they don’t call them used car salesmen for nothin’!

[SheilaAnn]

15. That is one of the many reasons not to answer those FB questions, this is how they get info on you.

[FakeNoose]

5. The grandmother made 13 withdrawals in cash from her bank in Florida

... and the bank NEVER questioned ANY of this?

The final withdrawal was $100,000 in cash and the bank let it go through?

This is highly irregular and the bank should have been looking into these suspicious activities since the beginning.

My bank calls me or notifies me by email almost immediately whenever I do something unusual or different. This Florida bank was asleep at the wheel.

[Generic Brad]

6. They had to let it go through

They most likely warned her she was probably the victim of a scam with each withdrawal and may have even notified the authorities. But it is illegal for them to stop a person from withdrawing her own funds. If you want to willingly fork over your money despite all warnings, red lights, emails and advice, no one has the authority to stop you.

[Vinca]

7. We never ever answer the phone unless it's someone we know. It would be really

amusing to get the "grandparent scammer" on the line though . . . since we didn't have kids.

[Mz Pip]

8. My in laws got hit with this.

They were at the bank ready to withdraw money for their grandson who’d been in a car accident in Mexico.
Fortunately, a very sharp bank teller started asking questions and figured out it was a scam.

My in-laws never asked which grandson it.