Scammers Using Desperate Phone Calls to Prey on Senior Citizens

A shameless phone scam that tricks senior citizens into thinking a grandchild is in trouble with the law in Mexico continues to deplete the bank accounts of those who fall for it.

The ordeal begins when the phone rings and a person posing as the victim’s grandson tells the startled grandparent that he is in jail in Mexico and needs bail money wired right away. He also tells the grandparent not to tell anyone else in the family because he is embarrassed to be in trouble.

As the grandparent is trying to make sense of the situation, the “grandson” will often hand the phone to an “attorney” that will make arrangements to have money wired through Western Union, usually several thousand dollars. Some seniors that have been victimized by the scam receive follow-up calls from the fictional attorney seeking more money.

The stress of hearing that a grandson is in a Mexican jail can lead to an overwhelming urgency to help that can cloud a person’s judgment enough that they don’t realize they are talking to a stranger. If a grandparent’s hearing isn’t what it used to be, that can also be a factor. Sometimes the “grandson” will say they were in a car crash or a bar fight and broke their nose, explaining why they sound different.

“They know what’s going to pull their heartstrings, a grandchild being in trouble,” said Darlene Duncan, crime prevention specialist at the .

The scam has targeted seniors in Poway, with six victims reported in the last six months and several others receiving a phone call but realizing it was bogus, Duncan said. A recent victim living in a Poway senior mobile home park wired $6,000 to the scammers, then wired another $6,000 when the “attorney” called back saying more was needed. A recent case in San Diego depleted $122,000 from grandparent’s bank account.

The money is wired outside the United States, usually to Mexico or Canada. There is little or no chance that it will be recovered.

Duncan has spoken to senior citizen groups throughout Poway spreading the word about the scam. Being victimized in this way can leave a person distraught, as well as financially ruined. When they contact family and realize that they have been duped, they wonder how they could have fallen for it. In some cases the caller failed to use a family nickname like “Nana,” but the grandparent’s concern for the safety of their loved one overcame any suspicions.

A Poway man in his 60s was recently taken by the scam, and told Duncan that he wanted to kick himself for falling for it. He wished he would have been more cautious, especially when the caller didn’t use the family nickname.

“He said, ‘If I fell for this, anyone can fall for this because they make it so believable,’ ” Duncan said.

In all of the local cases the victim realized that they had been scammed after they contacted family members, only to learn that everything was fine and nobody in the family is languishing in a Mexican jail.

“If your grandson or family member is legitimately incarcerated, chances are a family member is going to know about that and verify that,” Duncan said.

While money wired to a foreign country will most likely never be recovered, the Sheriff’s Department encourages victims to file a report, and the case will be sent to the Financial Crimes Unit.

How the scammers target their intended victims is unclear to investigators, but with the amount of money at stake they continue their search for unsuspecting seniors.

“These calls are still continuing whether these victims fall for them or not,” Duncan said. “They just go down the list.”