Scammers pretend to be your grandkids to get money in phone scam

COLUMBIA, Md. - We consider it one of the lowest of the low when it comes to scamming, but con artists are ripping off seniors by pretending to be their grandchildren. It’s happening in the Baltimore area.

Eighty-five year-old Dorothy from Columbia got a panicked phone call two weeks ago. The caller on the line sounded like her 20-year-old grandson, Tim. He called her ‘Grandma’ when they spoke, claimed he'd been drinking.

The caller told Dorothy he was in an accident and needed help, "He said the damage to the other car was $2800 and that he would have to pay this before they would release them and he said, ‘Can you help me out with this?’"

Like any good grandparent, Dorothy didn't hesitate. She took notes and soon went to wire the cash to a man in Italy at an address a so-called lawyer for Tim gave her over the phone.

She was distraught, but did it anyway and when the phone rang the next day with another request for money, Dorothy wired more cash. Then she called her daughter, Tim's mom, to make sure she knew he was in trouble.

Dorothy explains, "I said, ‘This has to do with Timmy’. And she said, ‘What about Timmy, he's standing right here’. Well, I could have died right on the spot."

Dorothy’s daughter, Anne, says she knew within seconds the story her mom was telling was a scam. And it’s a popular one, where con artists prey on the elderly by assuming the identity of one of their grandkids so they can get cash.

They ask the seniors they call to wire money out of country, thinking they're helping a relative in need.

Dorothy was convinced Tim was being held somewhere, so she acted on emotion and it cost her. Although her family was able to cancel the second wire transfer, she lost nearly $3000 in the first. It’s money she thought was going to help her grandson. Instead, those funds helped to pad the pockets of a scammer.

Dorothy tells ABC2, “It makes me wonder if they're this clever that they could do this, why don't they go and do something legit. They could make themselves a bundle."