The woman wired the money, via Western Union. to Guatemala
WESTFIELD – An elderly woman lost nearly $3,000 last week when she fell prey to a scammer who claimed to be her granddaughter in trouble in Guatemala.
Police detective Todd Edwards said the victim contacted him on Monday to report the scam which took place last week.
Edwards says he receives reports of such scam attempts being made in Westfield, which often target the elderly, at least once a week and warns residents to be vigilant.
“They are really good at what they do,” Edwards said. “This is what they do for a living, unfortunately.”
In this instance, the woman, who is in her 80s, received a call from a female last Tuesday who claimed to be her granddaughter and said she had just been arrested, along with a friend, and needed money to get out of jail.
The victim later told police she wasn’t sure if the scammer already knew her granddaughter’s name or if she herself revealed it during the conversation, Edwards said.
The scammer told the woman that she had a cold as a means of explaining why she her voice sounded different, Edwards said.
A male, claiming to be with the U.S. consulate, then came on the phone and told the woman she needed to wire $2,800 down to Guatemala in order to free her granddaughter. The male then named a Westfield grocery store where she could wire the money via Western Union.
Both the female and male scammers pressured the woman to accomplish her task quickly. “They got her hurrying around,” Edwards said.
The male scammer said he would call back a short time later to get the necessary transfer number so he could successfully collect the money in Guatemala.
The woman complied and a short time later the female scanner called, seeing an additional $2,500 for plane fare. At this point the woman, now suspicious, called her granddaughter and learned that she was at her college in Georgia and that she had never left the country.
Edwards said police hear of such scams succeeding in Westfield several times a year. He said there is little police can do except strive to educate the public to be wary.
“The only thing we can do is to try and prevent the next one,” Edwards said.
Such scammers typically ask for sums under $3,000 in order to avoid a deeper level of scrutiny by Western Union, Edwards said.
Last year, a 20-year-old woman lost some $20,000 when she ran afoul of on a variation of the scam known as a sweetheart scam. In that case, the scammer, whom she met through a singles website, claimed to be a U.S. citizen who was living in Nigeria taking care of a sick relative.
“He just roped her in,” Edwards said, adding that he received the money incrementally over a four-month period.
Western Union warns of a number of such scams on its website.