The Phone Call

She picked up the phone completely unprepared for the conversation that followed.

He said:  Grandma?

She said: Who is this?

He said: Your grandson.

She said: Which one?

He said: Your favorite.

She said: Sam is that you?

He said:  Yeah, yeah, it's Sam.  Listen Grandma, I'm in trouble and I need some help.  I need you to wire me $4,000 so I can get out of jail.

She said:  What did you say?

He said:  I'm in Houston, TX and I got into a little trouble.  I'm going to give you a western union account number and I need you to send $4,000 to this bail bondsman...name given.  And please Grandma, don't tell my parents.  I just want to get home for Christmas.

A few more instructions were exchanged and Grandma grabbed her coat, heading out the door to the bank.  If one of her grandchildren needed her she couldn't say no, or could she?  Was that really Sam?  It was what he always said when he called her, that he was her favorite grandson, but it didn't sound like him.  And why wouldn't he call his parents if he was in trouble?  The doubts began to mount and this sharp Grandma decided to make a phone call.  One phone call that changed everything.  She called Sam's father.

She said: Do you know where Sam is?
He said:  He's home, in Chicago, packing his car.
She said: Are you sure?
He said: Yes, I just talked to him.  What's wrong?

And the story unfolded.  Grandma was almost scammed out of $4,000 of her savings by a cold, calculating stranger playing on the love and affection a grandparent has for her grandchildren.

What is even more scary, at least to me, is that this story is true.  The call was made yesterday afternoon to my Mother-in-law.  She was going to the the bank to come to the aid of her grandson, my son.  Yet something didn't ring true.  For one thing, her grandchildren never call her Grandma, she is and always will be Bubba.  There was also the fact that the caller would not give her a phone number where she could reach him, only instructions for how and where to wire the money.  And the voice, it didn't sound like any of her grandsons, not really. There were enough doubts to lead her to make the call to her son.  That phone call saved everyone a lot of heart ache, and her $4,000.

The police were called but there was little they could do.  They explained that most of these scammers use pay as you go cell phones that are disposed of at the end of each day making them virtually full proof.  In fact they may be calling from out of the country.

We should all take note of Bubba's story.  These things happen to real people, every day.  Senior citizens are the typical targets.  Scammers play on their devotion to family and the sentiments of the holiday season.  It's a scary world we live in.