Scamming Grandmas

Earlier tonight while sitting in Panera’s drinking coffee my mother called me to tell me about a scam call she received yesterday.  Someone called her and said her grandson Jimmy had been in an accident. She said her heart immediately sank and she panicked. She still kept her wits about her and asked to speak to her grandson.  The person who alleged he was her grandson didn’t sound right to my mother.  He tried to explain it away as his nose got broken in the accident which caused him to talk weird.  The people on the phone told my mother she needed to send cash for Jimmy to buy a plane ticket to enable him to come home.  She was supposed to send the cash to San Diego in the Dominican Republic. She realized it was a scam and hung up on the people; however, she still needed to talk with her grandson to know he was all right.

Mother told me she knew someone to whom the same thing happened. This lady went so far as trying to cash a check for cash at her local grocery store. When they found out why she needed the money they refused to give it to her because they were aware of the scam.

I heard of a similar scam happening to another women I knew. They called her and said her grandson had been arrested in Canada and needed money to pay his court costs so he could return home.

 

I have read in magazines, newspapers and heard on the news about these types of scams going on all over the country and they scare me.  They knew the people who were grandmothers and their grandson’s names.  Just how did they know that? Also, the fact they preyed on people the knew were older, specifically grandmas of older grandchildren.  These folks were from a generation that was trusting. Some were not as cognitively sharp as they were at one time. Plus grandmothers seem to be willing to do anything for their grandsons, no matter the cost.  The amount of money doesn’t seem to influence them.

Is too much information readily available on the Internet? As I mentioned in one of my previous posts when does the freedom of speech on the Internet infringe upon the freedom of those to be safe from losing their money and being upset by scammers who get their information from the net?

As a society how should we approach the out of control “information highway?” As an individual?  Maybe it doesn’t need control or does it?

Until Later,

Sally S