Caution, scam warning for grandparents

Applying to College
1

<p>This just happened to my mother - my son has been traveling abroad for the last year after graduation. My mother is only vaguely aware of where exactly he is. She got a telephone call from someone claiming to be my son (with a faint accent, no less) who said he desperately needed her help, that he was in Canada for a wedding and had gotten into an accident and was in jail and didn't want to call his parents. Then someone claiming to be a lawyer got on the phone and said she had to immediately send money via Western Union for bail, to my son's name, in Dorval Quebec. He wouldn't give a phone number, just said she had to send the money within the hour because he needed to post bail and that he would call her back and she could give him the Western Union number which would suffice for the court. Although she felt something was wrong, my son needed her help and so she complied. It was all a complete scam - but they had her name, they had my son's name.</p>

<p>Please warn all your older relatives -who are the ones usually preyed on in this scam because they have more infrequent contact with the grown grandchildren. After the fact we found this on snopes.com: snopes.com:</a> Family Member Impersonation Scam</p>

2

<p>This same scenario happened to my son’s grandmother awhile back - said he was drinking and wound up in jail in Canada. She was afraid to call us but she called another relative for advice. Fortunately she didn’t send any money. She simply didn’t have it to give (she was asked for a few thousand I think).</p>

3

<p>That’s the exact same scenario. In Canada. Said he was in jail, said he had been drinking at the wedding, and something about not having car insurance. Unfortunately, she didn’t call us or another relative, and did send the money. Which was something like $2700 plus the court costs of $50 or so. It was all very specific which also served to fool her.</p>