THE WOODLANDS, Texas – The number of victims who are elderly and falling for scammer’s tactics has risen at an alarming rate, while the amounts they’ve loss are even more staggering.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in 2021, over 92,000 victims over the age of 60 reported losses of $1.7 billion.
This represents a 74% increase in losses over those reported in 2020.
And these scams are circulating more and more in the Houston area. One scam, in particular, has recently robbed the elderly of tens of thousands of dollars.
“He says ‘Grandpa?’. And I say, ‘Yeah?’ [He says] ‘Grandpa, I had an accident, and I’ve been arrested,” noted grandfather John Heyde.
“He called me and said [my son’s] in jail, and I said, ‘No.’ And I yelled to Dan to call Travis,” explained Debbie Gamel.
The scam always seems to start the same. The person on the other line targets an older person who in many cases has a grandchild.
“It sounded so genuine in other ways, and it sounded so much like him, like the way he says, Grandpa,” explained Heyde. “This was so real and so personal. He says I was reaching for my phone, and I hit another car with a woman that was pregnant.”
In many of these cases, the victims say the scammer who is acting like their grandchild says they are injured after getting into a car wreck and need help bailing out.
Heyde says the person acting as his grandson said his lawyer would call him soon.
“A few minutes later this other guy…
