Unfortunately for every single good person out there, thousands of horrible people lie in wait to take advantage of someone. A popular scam that is going around lately targets the grandparents of people who spend a lot of time on social media sites. These scammers will use the information of the people they find on Social media sites to pretend to be that person.
Once the scammer has gathered enough information, they will contact the grandparent and tell him or her that they were arrested and need bail money. They will ask that the grandparent not mention this problem to anyone else in the family, for fear of being embarrassed. If the grandparents give the caller money, the scammer will disappear with money, never to be seen again.
Luckily, this scam can be avoided by following these two tips:
• Ask the caller a lot of questions. Ask why the person’s voice sounds different, and they may reply with their nose was broken during or before the arrest. Ask as many questions as possible to try and trip them up. They may have some of the answers, but they probably won’t have all of them.
• Talk to the family. If they do not want the rest of the family to know, then that should raise some red flags. The best thing to do is to talk to the rest of the family. You might discover that the grandkid that “called” is actually safe at home.
Scammers prey off of their victims panic and fear, and one of the best ways to scare someone is to cut them off from the people they trust. This is why scammers never want a person to think things through, or talk to loved ones. If you are ever put into a situation where some is requesting money, but doesn’t want to give you the time to think about the situation, it is likely a scam, and should be avoided.