When we were kids, we used to run to our grannies and grandpops for our problems especially if we’re in deep trouble with our parents. Our grandparents became our great ally, someone we can trust with our lives and won’t tell on us no matter what. In short, grandparents become their grandchildren’s greatest savior of all time.
Years forward and we found ourselves within their shoes. Now, it is our turn to save our grandkids from cruelty of the world and as much as possible, we protect them from harm. We cushion their fall, we condemn our kids if they’re not treating our grandkids right and threaten them to take the kids away if they won’t behave right. This is our duty—our job, as their grandparents; just like the ones preceding us.
This is a natural instinct deeply rooted among us. Call it animal instinct, if you want. For us, it is a natural response to human protecting their own and trust us, when you finally get here, you will understand but won’t be able to explain either.
This is exactly why seniors fall for this scam—the grandparent scam or emergency scam. Actually, this scam is the longest running among its contemporaries. Moreover, grandparent scam made comebacks from time to time and just recently, it struck again. The latest victim being a San Antonio woman named Barbara Thompson, robbed off of about $3,000 by someone pretending to be her grandchild.
By the way, grandparent scam has been included in the top 10 famous scams ever, along with others which usually target seniors. This, in fact, bothers government agencies committed to securing seniors’ lives. While some victims would rather keep the whole affair to themselves, police are now worried since this scam is frightfully gaining grounds all over US preying on seniors everyday.
Basically, here is how it works: a call is placed to a seniors’ home, preferably those who live alone or living with their senior spouse—miles away from their grandkids. This is to eliminate the possibility of confirmation if the situation is indeed true. With the help of slightly garbled phone connection, the con man/woman will then pretend to be your grandchild requesting money to be wired as soon as possible to get him out of trouble. The caller will request firm secrecy of the whole transaction being made especially from your kids who are supposed to be their parents. They will be very persistent and pressuring for quick action which usually throws you off from all stable decisions.
Police advises seniors to ask for personal details about the family if and when they receive such call. Once you find your caller to be vague and elusive, it is best to hang-up immediately and call a family member to confirm the details your caller gave you or better yet, call your grandchild directly. This way, you are assured that the one on the other end of the line is indeed your grandchild.
Some reports included that the cons supplied right family information such as name and current location of the grandchild in question. It seems they took one step higher than their usual “hit and miss” tactic and this certainly scares seniors more.
If the cons know, they must be following us right? Personal information is easily gathered from family blogs, web sites, social networking sites, and newspapers meaning, you should not send any valuable information over the internet, unless you are well prepared for its consequences. While it is okay to stay socially connected through social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, bear in mind that there are whole lot of scammers over the internet, waiting for their next victim. As always, take precautions in using the internet to prevent trouble from happening.
