Fraud Alert 223

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Burlington police report that a phone-fraud group has targeted residents of a local retirement community with the “Grandparent” scam. One of the fraud attempts was foiled just as the victim attempted to wire over three thousand dollars to someone impersonating her grandson. The following account in yesterday’s Times-News of Burlington provides details. It also describes an attempt by a phone-fraud criminal to obtain money from a Burlington resident through death threats.

Police warn of scams against seniors
April 15, 2009 - 6:07 PM
Roselee Papandrea / Times-News

Burlington police recently received several reports from people who were scammed out of money over the telephone.

While it is difficult for authorities to make arrests in telephone scam cases, police want to get the word out to prevent others from falling victim to a caller's tricks.
Several residents of a retirement community in Burlington received phone calls last week from a man claiming to be a grandson. An 84-year-old woman reported to Burlington police that she received a call at about 11 a.m. April 9 from a man who said he was her grandson. He even used her grandson's nickname. The man said he was in Houston on a job interview and had a car wreck.

He told his grandmother that the wreck wasn't his fault, but it caused $3,600 in damages to his car. He asked to borrow the money because he couldn't wait for the insurance money to get it fixed. He also told his grandmother not to mention it to the rest of the family because he got the job in Texas and wanted to surprise everyone when he got home.

She questioned him a little, especially because he didn't quite sound like her grandson. He said he broke his nose in the wreck.

"The only thing I could think of was my grandson. He was in trouble and needed money. It worried me," the woman told the Times-News. She didn't want to use her name because she is embarrassed that she fell for the scam. "It made me mad that I was that gullible," she said. "I always said all my life that they would never get me on something like that. But I didn't know they were going to say they were my grandson and know his name."

The woman went to Wal-Mart to wire money but ended up contacting the police and stopped the transaction before it was too late. She isn't out the money, but she is hurt that someone would target a grandmother with this type of scam.
The woman's case wasn't the only one police heard about recently. Several people in the same retirement community received similar calls. Most of them hung up on the caller.

Police also received a report from a man who received a call from a woman. She allegedly told him he owed $300 on his cable bill and if he didn't pay by the next day, she would kill him, said Burlington police Assistant Chief Greg Seel.
Seel said he doesn't know whether all the cases are connected or why there seem to be more reports about telephone scams.

"I think you can draw the conclusion that due to the economy we've seen an increase in people reporting fraud cases," he said. "... The word is be cautious."
Burlington police detective Pat Ingram spent the past seven years investigating financial crimes and when he started, he was investigating about 200 cases a year. Now, his case load has jumped to about 700 a year.

Ingram said that older people make "good victims." "They can't hear well, they think a little slower and they are easier to take advantage of and that's why they pick on them," Ingram said.

The economy is definitely a reason why more people are falling victim to scams, but often it's because there is a promise of monetary gain for them. Several Burlington residents recently were victims in a mystery shopper scam, Ingram said. A fraudulent check for $2,300 is sent to a someone and the person is asked to be a mystery shopper in some store. The person cashes the check and then they get a call saying they were overpaid and need to send $300 or $500 of the money back. The money is sent back through a money gram.

"Three or five days later that check that they put in their back bounced like a rubber ball," Ingram said. In the three most recent cases Ingram received, one person sent back $300, another person sent $500 and one sent back the entire $2,300, he said.

Ingram advises people to hang up on folks they don't know and if someone is claiming to be a relative, they need to check on the information before sending money.
"I recommend that they hang up on the person and call another family member to verify the information," Ingram said.

While frequently there is a lot the police department can do if someone is a victim of a telephone scam, people should report the incident anyway, Ingram said.
"Frequently, we take a report but there is not much we can do beyond that," Ingram said. "We urge people to call the Federal Trade Commission. The more you report them, the more the government can in the future take some action or prevent it."

Burlington police can be reached at 229-3500. The Federal Trade Commission can be reached at (202) 326-2222 or make reports online at www.ftc.gov.

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