When I opened the front door to my Bubby's apartment this morning I was greeted by an unusual sight: my Bubby was standing near the phone instead of sitting in her chair where I usually find her on my visits. I asked her what was going on.
I'm so glad you're here, she said. I didn't know what to do.
What's wrong, Bubby?
I got a call from your cousin Nora about an hour ago. She said she was in jail in Mexico.
What? Why?
She said she was just vacationing with some friends in Mexico when their car got pulled over and they were all searched and the police found drugs in the car--they weren't Nora's--
Of course they weren't.
But she didn't even know they were there, her friends had bought them--but the police arrested them all and now she's in jail and she was crying so hard--she's so scared--and she told me she couldn't call her mother, she didn't want to upset her--
All right.
And then she put this other man on the phone and he said that she was going to be held for up to two months if someone didn't pay the bail. I said I would pay it, it was only $2,700.15. Of course I'd pay.
Of course you would, Bubby.
But then he said he had to put me on hold and then the phone cut out and he hasn't called me back and I don't have his number and I have no idea how to reach him or Nora. That was over an hour ago and I've been standing by the phone waiting for him to call back--why hasn't he called back? I'm so glad you came. I wasn't sure what to do.
Don't worry, Bubby. Don't panic. We'll figure it out. There has to be something we can do.
Cue three hours of panicked phone calls with family members while we all try desperately to find my cousin Nora and try to get her out of a Mexican jail--wherever it was in Mexico.
Where did we eventually find my cousin? In northern California staying at a friend's house with poor cell service.
Not in a Mexican jail.
Not needing bail.
She's just fine.
So what happened?
My friends near and far--my Bubby was nearly the victim of a scam. It is in fact a well-documented scam but it's not one I've ever heard of before. And it is so easy to believe.
It's called The Grandparent Scam, and it seems to have reared it's ugly head not so long ago but it's quickly become very sophisticated thanks to the internet and all the information that's out there on all of us.
Someone calls a Grandparent and claims to be their grandchild or niece or nephew and begs them to send money because they've been arrested/gotten in a car accident/been mugged. And don't tell my parent's because I don't want to upset them.
That all sounds horribly familiar to me who just spent three hours with my Bubby trying to figure out what had happened to my cousin.
The strange part about the phone call is the fact that they didn't actually get to the part where they told my Bubby how to send the money. She said that the man on the phone (whom she thought was a lawyer/representative/police man) asked her a few questions and then put her on hold before they got to the money part. When I asked her what the questions were, they sounded all right enough--but then she said something that surprised me. She said that somehow her age had come up (she's 101 years old, soon to be 102) and it was right after that that the man had placed her on hold.
Whereupon he hung up on her not much later.
These people are successful criminals. They steal money from old people all day long. They seem to have no qualms about it. They cry and they lie and they take your money and it's lost forever.
So why did they stop this time? Why didn't they continue the scam and steal my Bubby's money? I mean, I'm so very grateful that they didn't--but why did they stop?
Is it possible that they have scruples about stealing from a 101 year old, but not a 70 year old?
I just don't get it. But I'm grateful all the same.
So please everyone--I beg of you--tell your grandparents about this scam. Let them know that someone could call them pretending to be you and asking for money. And if they tell you that of course they would never believe it, that of course they would know that that wasn't your voice--please tell them that they're wrong. It is so horribly easy to mistake one voice for another on the phone. Especially when that voice is crying and sobbing and begging you to help.
It's enough to make me want to start using secret pass codes when I talk to my grandparents: just to let them know that it is indeed me.
Because I never want to spend another day the way I did today. And I don't want anyone else to go through this horrible experience of worry and fear and terror.
Tell everyone you know about this. Tell them to tell everyone they know. And maybe we can put these people out of business for good.
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