PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, MD — A nationwide “grandparent scam” has infiltrated Prince George’s County. Since Jan. 20, the county police department has received several reports of this scam and in two of those cases, the scammers swindled victims out of thousands of dollars.
In many “grandparent scam” cases, the suspect calls an elderly victim and pretends to be one of the senior’s grandchildren who was just involved in a serious accident such as a car crash or was arrested. The person posing as the grandchild gives the victim a phone number for a lawyer and then hangs up. The victim contacts the fake lawyer who attempts to convince them to a pay large amount of cash in order to help the grandchild. The suspect or a co-conspirator then will often go to the victim’s home and pick up the money. In some cases, the phone scammer pretends to be one of the victim’s children, the police department reported.
One Lanham woman in her 70s recently was scammed in this way. She said the scammers are “really, really, really good at what they do.” The Prince George’s County Police interviewed the woman who was willing to share her story in the hopes of helping others.
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The woman who police did not identify in order to protect her said she thought it was her firstborn grandchild. He said he was in a car accident and started crying on the phone, that he didn’t want the accident to go on his record. She said he needed…
