Fortunate are you if you haven’t been the recipient of a scam phone call. I’m not talking about the unsolicited calls to lower your credit card interest rate or re-finance your mortgage. The danger there is giving out vital information that may end up who knows where.
Of more concern is that call, usually at night,that purports to be from a loved one, a grandchild, a son, or the like. The conversation goes like this: “Oh, Grandad, I’ve been in a terrible accident and I need your help. Don’t tell anyone but I’m in jail for drunk driving and the man I hit is hurt.”
By this time, the poor Grandad is trying to keep his heart in his chest, but says, “You don’t sound like yourself. Where are you?” “I broke my jaw; I can hardly talk. I’m in jail at Myrtle Beach. Please don’t tell anyone or I’ll lose my job. Here’s my lawyer; talk to him. He says he can get me out of this.”
Next he hears an urbane lawyer-like person who calls him by name and says how sorry he is that this has happened but if he can pay a bond before midnight and the police will never report it. He reminds the addled old man that the grandson needs medical attention so time is of the essence.
Here is the first big clue that this is a scam. The money must be made available instantly and it can only be transferred by some arcane technic like a MoneyGram from CVS or iTunes cards from Walmart. Once the cards of transfer documents are in hand he is to call a certain number and give the lawyer the card numbers. It has to be done this way, he is told, so there will be no money trail to implicate the grandson.
Once the cards are purchased and the numbers telephoned to the “lawyer” the scam is complete, the money has gone to India, Russia, or Timbuktu . . . it will never be found. The scammers have hacked the data-transfer line from Walmart, CVS, or whoever is the unwitting seller of the purveyance.
The card seller gets a commission for selling such cards, but the card has no value and the money never was in the hands of the card seller or iTunes. The transfer has been hijacked, the credit card company used to make the purchase bills Granddad for $3500, the cost of the 35 cards he purchased and he is libel to the credit card company.
Meanwhile, the scammers have yet another ploy before they close down the action: They sell the poor Pop’s data such as phone number, possibly his credit card number and other facts they have gathered in the “transaction.”
Only when a family makes the nightly phone call to check on Pop does he find out that said grandson is asleep in his room. Notifying the police gains a sympathetic visit but the sad news that this is virtually untraceable. The phone numbers on caller ID are not the real numbers used and the truth of the matter is that the cost of getting a lawyer or an investigator track this down will exceed the amount of possible recovery.
What to do if you get such an alarming phone call? Take a very deep breath and ask a question that the scammer could not possibly answer: Give me the name of my college, my childhood pet’s name, how many grandchildren, or the like. They will hang up. The police should be notified of the fake phone number but they will not have the power or time to track it down.
Every merchant who sells MoneyGrams, iTunes, or any other electronic gift transfer should have a policy of helping the customer verify that there is a legitimate reason for purchasing dozens of individual cards. Employees in such establishments should have a training session to alert them to potential fraud when such an unlikely purchase is requested.
There are countless iterations of this fictional account. When stressed by an “emergency” call that is going to involve money required immediately by a usual method don’t fall for it!
Hayden Hollingsworth