Victim of 'granny' scam speaks out

Phone scams have been around for a long time, but there is seemingly no end to perpetrators’ creativity in cheating someone out of hundreds or thousands of dollars.

A Bigfork woman, Cheryl Harber, was a recent victim of what many refer to as a “granny” scam. Typically, someone calls an elderly person and tells them their grandson or granddaughter has been arrested and needs bail money.

The grandparent is then instructed to wire money to a location.

This is what happened to Harber.

“There were flags I just didn’t pick up on, but when you believe you are hearing your grandson on the phone, he’s in trouble and needs your help and the story makes sense, you aren’t paying attention to that.”

Harber said when she answered the phone, it sounded like a robocall.

“The voice was very nasal and then I heard the man say ‘Grandma.’ He was hemming and hawing and he then asked me if I had heard about his trip. He said he had went to Cleveland for a wedding and had a traffic accident. He told me he didn’t want me to check with his mother.”

Harber said she believed the scammers found out about her and her grandson after she posted a photo of him in his Army National Guard uniform on Facebook.

“The man who said he was my grandson said he had been in accident with a female driver, but she (had) accepted responsibility for it and wasn’t pressing charges. But he said he had been drinking wine at the wedding and was arrested for driving under the influence.

“He said he had a legal aid attorney and gave me his case number and told me the attorney would call, which he did 20 minutes later,” Harber added.

Harber said the “attorney” claimed that her grandson couldn’t afford the $2,500 bail. She was then directed to wire $970 of that total to an offshore account in the Dominican Republic.

“I had to get the money wired in a hurry, so I sent it from the Western Union at Walmart in care of someone named Juan Garcia or something like that.”

But that wasn’t the end of the scam.

“The next morning, the man who said he was my grandson’s attorney called and said the woman that was involved in the accident was in the hospital, was in the country on a church visa, didn’t have any insurance and had been pregnant, but had since lost the baby.

“He told me the woman was willing to settle everything for $50,000,” Harber said. “I said this is (expletive). I told him I wasn’t doing anything until I spoke with (my grandson).”

Harber said she soon received a phone call from the man who was pretending to be her grandson.

“He was crying and said he had been beaten up in jail. Then, the man who was supposedly his attorney called and asked how soon I could send the money. I told him two weeks and when I challenged him, he backed off.”

Harber’s daughter had checked online court records and didn’t find anything about her son being involved in a DUI crash.

“Thank God I’m only out $970,” Harber said. “They were very convincing. When you think it’s someone that you love and they need your help, you do things you wouldn’t normally.”

Area law enforcement is all too familiar with these scams.

Ben Woods, Undersheriff for Lake County, said the scams have increased in frequency during the last half a dozen years.

“They have increased and we do take them seriously, but with a limited department and budget, there’s not much we can do about them,” Woods said. “We’ve seen the Craigslist scams or ones where they will claim to put a warrant for your arrest if you don’t wire money to pay fines.”

Woods said the elderly are the primary victims, but fortunately, people are starting to get wise to the scams.

Woods said there are ways people can determine when they’re being scammed.

“If a person calls and claims to be a family member, ask them a question only you and your relative would know,” Woods said. “If they claim to be in jail, ask them what jail they are in and get a phone number. Jail records are public information and you can find out if a family member is jailed.

“Finally, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Woods said.

A Kalispell woman, Lorna Wilson, was the target of scammers, but she saw enough to avoid the fraud.

Wilson received a check in her name in the mail from a New Jersey-based business for $8,998. Along with the check was a brief letter from Crystal Connect Lotter, Inc. It indicated it had offices in Dallas, Texas and London, England. The letter said she was $500,000 winner in a general market survey draw. The letter indicated the check she received was to pay the taxes due on her winnings.

For Wilson to claim her supposed winnings, she would have had to deposit the check and wire the money to the sender.

But, according to the Federal Trade Commission, it’s a common scam.

At www.consumer.ftc.gov/, an article on check scams explains that while the check appears to be legitimate, the lottery angle is a trick to get someone to wire money to an unknown person.

“It’s very frustrating we have to be so careful about everything,” Wilson said. “I get four or five calls a day with things like this, but there were so many red flags with this, I just didn’t bother with it. But I do want people to know what is going on.”

Another Kalispell woman was also a recent victim of a similar scam.

Although she wished to remain anonymous, the woman spoke with the Daily Inter Lake about her experience.

She received a phone call from someone claiming to be her son. She said it sounded like her grandson, but with a cold.

The man she believed was her son said he was in a vehicle accident. He was then supposedly picked up at the hospital by a woman; they were then stopped by police and drugs were found in the car.

Another man, claiming to be a member of law enforcement, said her grandson had passed a drug test, but $2,000 was needed to get him out of jail.

She was told to go to a store and buy $2,000 worth of eBay gift cards. She did and gave the man she believed was a police officer the card numbers.

The scammers tried to continue the ruse the next day but when the woman attempted to buy more eBay cards, a store clerk asked her what they were for and told her she wouldn’t sell her the cards and that she should call the police.

When the woman spoke with her grandson, she learned he was fine and hadn’t been in an accident or in jail.

The woman believed the alleged criminals had found out information about her and her grandson from his Facebook page and that they used this information to persuade her.

For Kalispell Police Department Detective Doug Oberman, the scams occur sporadically, but the one they’ve seen the most lately involves single people looking for relationships online.

“They’ll maintain a relatonship with someone online for several months, fall in love and then they get the person to do some type of financial transaction for them,” Oberman said. “Often, they’ll send the victim a fraudulent check, have the person cash it and have them send the money back to them.

“When the bank finds out it’s a bad check, the victim is on the hook for the money. It really can be heartbreaking for the victims,” Oberman said. “The person has a financial as well as emotional loss.

“Typically, these people committing the scams are out of the country,” Oberman added.

Oberman suggested people that get suspicious calls verify what they can before sending any money to anyone.

“For the scams involving a loved one in jail, call the jail to verify if the person is in custody,” Oberman said. “There are also good tips on ways to avoid scams online at several online sites, including AARP.” You can also file a claim if you were scammed at www.ic3.gov.