My Grandparents.... REALLY???

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 4

So I have spent countless hours reading the posts here thinking how in the world someone could fall for these desperate and usually idiotic criminals. Than my mom tells me that my grandma almost wired someone 4500 dollars as insurance for a 500,000 dollar lottery they had won. Obviously, everyone in our family under the age of 80 new this was a scam. However, my grandma kept telling my mom that she was going to get the money back.

This is amazing to me because my grandparents are the type of people who tear up all there mail and yet they kept telling us, "No, we sign up for lots of sweepstakes" blah blah blah. The best part was that they got a call from an FBI agent, a Federal Trade Commitions agent and the Lyods London Bank in Brooklyn all telling them that it was real.

We just couldnt get through to my grandparents that is was fake. They kept saying "why would they have talked to us for about two hours on the phone" and "no, no, no. We dont need to talk to the police, we already talked to FBI agent John". It really is sad to think that without anyone telling them, they would have wired the 4500 dollars.

Anywayz, is this a pretty sophisticated scam with 4 separate characters or is it likely one person in his basement. We called the actual Lyods Bank of London and they say they get about 5 calls a day about this very scam. I dont get how people can fall for this but I guess when your 85 years old, its much easier too. We did call the police so they would talk to my grandparents but is there anything I can do? I have 3 separate phone numbers if you guys want to try.

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 4:03 am

Hi suds101, I am glad that the scam was spotted. Please take a look at our sister site www.scamwarners.com for more information on scams and victims.

Maybe a Mod can help you with some specifics too that will help your Mom and Grandma.

Scammers are willing to spend money to get their $4500.00 payday. For a couple of hours of long distance, they figure it is well worth it.

Yes, some do have several partners to make it seem more legit to the victim. I am glad you found us and I hope your grandma will listen to you!

Welcome!

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Hi suds101 Very Happy

It's scary that your grandparents were almost scammed, but they're fortunate that your family was able to stop them from sending money.

As ParaNoid said, you can go to www.ScamWarners.com. You'll get good advice, but additionally, you can post any information you have about the scam/scammers, including their email addresses and fake bank information. Members there will help you investigate the scam further, and having the information posted will make it searchable so that other potential victims might find it.

You can also ask for help there regarding having your grandparents warned by one of the members, if you don't think they are adequately convinced.

Lastly, if you can get copies of the introductory emails that the scammers sent to your grandparents, you can post it in the surplus forum here so that the scammer will get some attention from baiters. Wink

Good Luck to you and your family.

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:50 am

Hi suds101 Very Happy

I'm sorry to hear that your grandparents almost got scammed, and glad that it didn't actually happen.

People of your grandparents' age are a lot more trusting of what people do and say because in their time, everyone was friends with everyone. Computer crimes and Internet scams didn't exist, and locking doors was unheard of. People took others at their word, and many agreements were made with a handshake. Elderly people fall for scams primarily because they have a basic belief that all people are good, and many of them don't have the ability to tell that a scam is taking place.

About all that you can do is visit ScamWarners, and educate your grandparents that this is the age of technology and cyber crime. If they won't listen to you, enlist the help of your parents.

Master Baiter Joined: 25 Jun 2008 Posts: 123

i must admit that i, like yourself, used to wonder how on earth people can ever fall for these scams.

then i registered here and decided to try some baiting and i was amazed early on at just how convincing some of these scammers can be. many are awful and anyone should see through them, but some are so good at giving you their sob story etc that, if you werent certain they were scammers due to finding them on here and searching their email address on google, you might almost start to fall for their stories.

after all, a lot of these lads do it for a living so they have plenty of time to get good at it!

I'm glad your family were able to advise your grandparents that it was a scam

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:53 pm

hey suds101 - welcome. Take all the advice that these guys are giving you - they helped me a lot when I found them.

I feel your pain. My closest friend in the world is in her 70's and because of the failing economy, she and her husband are in danger of losing their home. She recently told me that she has been investigating some work at home deals on the internet. She apparently gave her email address on one of the sites and now is getting bombed with spam and scam emails. I gave her the scammer warning and I'm hoping that she took it to heart, but I know how desperate she is and how good these guys are. I am so happy your family was able to stop your grandparents from sending any money.

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 5727

Suds101, if you happen to know the name the scammer was using could you pm it to me? I'm dealing with a Ll0yds bank scammer right now, and he seems to be much more sophisticated than your average scammer. I've obviously been passed up to an oga (the english suddenly got much better), and I've got a really strong feeling that this isn't some lad sitting at a computer in an internet cafe that I'm dealing with.

Sorry to hear about things, but it sounds like it was caught in time.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 4

well the thing is they contacted my grandparents directly through the phone, no emails. If you want, I can give you the numbers to the FBI office, Lawyer office, federal trade commission or the bank.

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 5727

If you could pm those to me that would be great. I'm sure there are lots of lads out there posing as this particular bank, but you never know.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 4

So these people are still picking up all the phones, is there anything I can do or a good way to waste there time?

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:07 am

Wow, that's wicked scary. Good for you though for saving your grandparents from sending off that money.

This actually makes me really grateful how computer savvy my Grampa is. My Gramma never uses the net, so that's good. After hearing about all of these people who almost got sucked in, I think I am going to have a bit of a chinwag with my Grampa about this stuff...just in case.

It's just amazing how it can happen to anyone, really.

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:16 am

@Suds101 - Congratulations on finding us here and if there is any team of people that will make these lads lives hell it will be us Very Happy

Really glad that your grandparents didn't get scammed... I worry all the time about people I know getting sucked in.

Please PM me the phone numbers and I will give them unwanted exposure on the radio, obviously not mentioning anything to do with your grandparents to them for obvious reasons!

Look forward to hearing from you.

NTBS

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