[ Post a Response | The Meeting Place for Survivors ]
Posted by Marina on November 1, 2009, 9:44 pm
This has nothing to do with breast cancer, but so many of us, are, or have grandparents and grandchildren that I think it is important enough to post here.
A dear friend of mine, 85 years old, was called by a person pretending to be her grandson and telling her that he was in serious trouble in Canada and could she please wire money to a certain lawyer in Canada. This went on for 4 days. Each day she went to the bank and withdrew thousands of dollars and sent it via WesternUnion. She was told not to tell anyone what she was doing or their would be serious consequences. On the 5th day, she was told to wire the money via MoneyGram. They absolutely refused to wire money to a foreign country to someone she didn't know. She was so distraught that I called the US Consulate in Canada and was told that this was the "Granny Scam", which has bilked millions of dollars out of seniors in the US. The person will call and say "Granny?" and she'll answer with the grandson's name and if she thinks he sounds odd, he'll tell her he's had no sleep, he's in jail, whatever. It sounds crazy that this could happen, but my friend sent $10,000.00 to these crooks! Half of her life savings. And there seems to be no recourse. WesternUnion never questioned her, neither did the bank as she took out thousands of dollars from her account day after day. Though she filed a police report, there is no chance of getting her money back. So , please, PLEASE, warn your family members and remind yourselves that if a so called family member calls you with a distress call, ask them questions only a real relative would know, or have a code word and never ever send money to a stranger overseas. These crooks gather info from Facebook, blogs, myspace, etc. You can read more about these scams on phonebusters.com, a Canadian website that warns of these schemes.
It just makes me heartsick that this poor woman lost half her life savings that she worked so hard for her whole life to these heartless crooks. So, please everyone, take heed.
marina
167
Responses: