Buffalo, NY (WBEN) The FBI is warning folks, especially the elderly, of a scam involving a grandchild of a potential victim. The FBI says one local victim was bilked out of thousands of dollars, likely never to be recovered.
FBI Supervisory Special Agent Andrew Abramowitz says the scam works in three parts. "A grandparent gets a call from a granddaughter who's hysterical, saying she's just been in a car accident, she was texting, and she's responsible so she's been jailed. The second part is she hands the phone over to a lawyer who says the granddaughter needs to post bond to get out of jail. Then the grandparent goes to withdraw the money from the bank, and part three is a courier shows up in a car or a van, and collects the money. We refer to them as money mules," says Abramowitz, who notes the money goes overseas.
He says the scammer kept calling the victim. "They needed to post, the grandparent gave $9,000. The scammer called back the next day, the grandparent sent $6,000, then ran out of money. Then the scammer convinced the grandparent to buy an American Express gift card," in total scamming the victim of $16,000.
Abramowitz says what's concerning about this scam is how scammers use social media. "The granddaughter was in college in a city in another state," notes Abramowitz. "Scammers probably were able to social engineer to see that. When the co-conspirator claimed to be an attorney, they used an actual law firm in that city to make it more believable."
Abramowitz says the best way to avoid the scam is not jump into it. "Take a step back, and call the police or the FBI, or talk to a trusted family member or aide. Even if a senior citizen goes to a bank and talks to a branch manager, that person will tell you it's a scam," says Abramowitz.
Abramowitz says once the money goes to the scammer, it's likely gone for good. "A lot of these scams are run by organized crime groups overseas. They set up call centers overseas, and then they recruit money mules to collect money and transfer money, so some of these scams can be convincing and sophistaicated," explains Abramowitz. He says once it's transferred overseas, it's difficult to recover the money.
This investigation is ongoing.
