(Des Moines)– Officials are issuing a renewed warning about what’s known as “the grandparent scam”. It involves con artists calling the victim posing as a grandchild claiming they have been in an accident, hospitalized, jailed or even in a foreign country, then ask the grandparent to send money to help them. At times, they say scammers will go as far as to send an alleged courier to the grandparent’s home to retrieve the money. Scammers will often trick the victim by using details about their grandchild that were obtained from social media accounts. The scammer may also team up with another scammer who pretends to be someone backing up the scammer’s claims, such as an attorney, doctor or police officer.
Officials say the grandparent scam highlights the dangers of sharing personal information, wiring money, providing prepaid card numbers of bank account information and buying or transferring cypto currency to strangers by telephone. They add grandparent scam transactions generally transfer funds abroad and are nearly impossible to trace.
Officials say if you get such a call you should simply hang up. They add that if you have any questions about the welfare of a grandchild or family member you should call a verified phone number for that person to check out the story.
Anyone suspicious of a grandparent scam should immediately contact law enforcement or the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.
