Scam alert: Beware call from your 'grandson'
Diana Sweetman just learned a lesson she won't soon forget.
The 77-year-old Hauser resident was surprised earlier this week when she received a call from her 23-year-old grandson, pleading for help to bail him out of jail in Canada.
"He said he need $5,000 in order to get out of jail," Sweetman said.
His story of giving a ride to strangers who were caught with drugs seemed so strange, she said, especially considering he had never before mentioned a trip to Canada.
"He lives in Arizona, so why he'd be in Niagara Falls, I don't know," she said.
The young man asked her to wait for a call from an officer, who soon followed up with a warning that her grandson could receive up to seven years in prison.
"He kept pressing, 'Make sure you pay $5,000 before 9 p.m.," she said. "At this point of course I was very upset."
Asking for time to run to the bank, she hung up, and suddenly realized the young man who had called had never given his name.
"I just assumed, because he said, 'Grandma,'" she said.
To be sure, she called the Niagara Falls Police, who informed her that her grandson wasn't in custody and she was being scammed.
"They said they get 20 to 25 calls a month on this same thing," she said.
Sweetman said she wouldn't be surprised if others her age fell for the ploy.
"He kept saying, 'I hate to tell you this, but I know I can trust you,' reinforcing all the things you want to hear about your relationship," she said. "I know there are people out there who would probably run to the bank, send the money and wouldn't have thought it through."
Maj. Ben Wolfinger with the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department said the county gets calls on the scam every once in awhile.
"It's a pretty common scam," Wolfinger said. "It's based out of Canada, and usually the stories are the same: They're in custody in Canada, they need bond money, there's usually a money drop place."
Double check the circumstances before putting up any money, he advised.
"People just need to be wise to it," he said.