I received a phone call from a young man who claimed to be my oldest grandson. My grandson and I have not talked in a few years so the fact I did not recognize his voice was not a clue.
"Grandma, it is me, your oldest grandson" I supplied a name. He then proceeded to spin a tale about going to The Dominican Republic
" Grandma, you remember my friend Tyler, NO, you must have forgotten because I told you about us going to The Dominican Republic for his wedding."
He told me about being in a car wreck and injured and even though he was not at fault the police threw him in jail. His friends had collected about half what he needed for bail but he still needed $3000 to get out and come back to the US. Would I send him the money please. Now my grandson and I might not talk on the phone much but we do FB each other and I knew he was in Arkansas. I told him I had no money and asked him could he help me with my light bill when he got back to the states please. The caller abruptly hung up.
I did call the local sheriff office and they confirmed it was a scam.
The thing is this guy was very convincing and I was half way through the call before I figured out it was a scam. So be careful there are some nasty folks out there and want to tug at your heart strings in order to steal from you.

you are so wise to be vigilant. it's a shame that we just can't trust anymore.

Thanks for sharing. Some people are so dishonest (to put it mildly!).

I wish they would get a job and leave us alone!

Thanks for the warning. P.S. I loved the part where you asked him to help you with your light bill....!! I'll bet he didn't see that coming...lol.

LOL, love the turnabout you did! :)

A lot of that kind of scam is geared toward calling family members of returning soldiers. It happened to my fil when my son was coming home. He did get back most of the money he sent.

How unthinkable

There are crooks everywhere.

Sounds like we need to adopt non existent grandchildren when we answer the phone so when we say the fake name our real grandkids will say no this is (real grandchild name)(Just make sure your family knows why you're doing this). These scammers wouldn't know you have an non existent grandchild and would say yes. You could then, if you have time, play with them telling them all sorts of things taking up their time. If they mention being in another country start making up a story of traveling when you were younger and how those were such good ol days. If they ask for money your answer was perfect - gas and electric bills are others.

I do appreciate your reminder to us. Thank You!