LETTER: Grandmother’s love for her grandson exploited by scam

   To Ozaukee Press:

I am writing this to alert older people in the community to a scam that is going around. It is called the “grandparent scam.”

Several weeks ago I received a phone call supposedly from my 17-year-old grandson, who lives in Utah. He said, “Grandma, I have to get out of here.”

He went on to tell me that he was in a car accident where he hit a car with a pregnant woman in it. He said they were holding him in the courthouse and that I needed to talk to his lawyer.  

His “lawyer” got on the phone and told me that he managed to get the bail down from $25,000 to $7,600. I needed to send the $7,600 to a person in New Jersey. This had to be cash and I needed to send it FedEx to arrive the following morning. He said I was to tell no one, not even immediate family. I immediately went to the bank and cleaned out my account and obtained the cash.

The next day the “lawyer” called and told me that my grandson would be held in a federal prison and charged with a felony.  He could fix this by arranging to transfer my grandson to children’s court for a sum of $8,500. If I didn’t do this, my grandson could be in federal prison for 25 years because this accident caused the death of the baby the woman carried.  

I thought something sounded a little fishy, but I was in a panic that such a thing could happen with a minor who simply had an accident and there was no real intention to harm anyone. So I cleaned out our joint checking account and obtained the cash, which was again sent to the New Jersey address.

A few hours later, the “lawyer” called me and said that the cash I sent would not arrive until Monday, instead of the next day (Saturday), and that I should go back to the FedEx place and straighten this out so that the money would arrive the next day.

When I arrived at the FedEx store, the woman working there took me aside and said that she thought I was being scammed. Then a policeman came in and told me that there have been several instances of this type of thing happening in the area. He advised me not to send the money.  

Later he called me and reported that he called this “lawyer” and told him he was from the Grafton Police Department. The man, he said, hung up. Subsequent calls went unanswered. When the New Jersey address was checked, it was revealed that it was not the address of the individual whose name I was told to send the money to.

The policeman called my son and grandson in Utah and was informed that there never was an accident.

I was relieved to hear this, and though I lost $7,600 in the scam, it was wonderful to know that my grandson would not have to live his life with this situation hanging over his head.

I am thankful for the kind person at the FedEx store and the diligent policeman for stepping in and saving me from losing the $8,500.

Kathy Parsons
Saukville