By Randy Hutchinson
President of the BBB of the Mid-South
Reprinted from The Commercial Appeal
Some of the street names of scammers indicted in a recent Department of Justice (DOJ) case read like a crime novel – “Muscles,” “Styx,” “Blondie” and “Toast.” And the amount of stolen money is bigtime – more than $21 million.
The DOJ indicted 25 Canadian nationals for defrauding elderly consumers across the U.S. in the “Grandparent Scam” between 2021 and 2024. All but two are in custody and face up to 40 years in prison. Many were arrested in call centers in Canada while placing fraudulent calls to elderly Americans. Nine additional crooks had been arrested previously, including people in the United States and one in China. The apparent ringleader was a fellow named Gareth West, also known as “Buddy” and “Muscles.”
In their calls, the crooks claimed to be an elderly victim’s grandchild or other relative who had been arrested following a car crash and needed bail money. Sometimes the caller posed as an attorney representing the relative. The grandchild would beg the victim to “please don’t let mom and dad know.” The fake attorney might even say there was a gag order in place to prevent telling anyone else about the arrest.
When the BBB first reported on this scam years ago, victims were being instructed to wire the bail money or pay via gift or prepaid debit cards. The crooks in this case actually showed up at the victim’s home posing as a bail bondsman.
In the early days of the scam, the crooks would say something to the effect “this is your favorite grandchild” and wait for the victim to say “is that you Joey?” in which case he would be Joey. He might say he doesn’t sound like himself because he was injured in the accident.
These days, the crook can find a grandchild’s name on social media and use artificial intelligence to clone the loved one’s voice from just a short snippet of his or her voice. They can spoof caller ID to make an incoming call look like it’s coming from a trusted source. All of which make the call more believable.
An IRS agent involved in this case said, “West and his associates led a transnational criminal enterprise with the sole intent of defrauding hundreds of retirees of their life savings by preying on their emotions and deceiving them into thinking that their loved ones were in peril.”
The DOJ alert didn’t say how much individual victims in this case lost. A well-known local religious leader called me one day to ask if there was any way to recover $1,800 he wired thinking he was helping a granddaughter in trouble. A New York man lost $100,000 to the scam.
The Grandparent Scam relies on the victim panicking. If you get one of these calls, take a deep breath and try to verify the whereabouts of your loved one and/or the identity of the caller.
Remember crooks can get personal information off the Internet or from social media and can clone a loved one’s voice. Don’t be fooled by caller ID; names and numbers can be spoofed.
Ask yourself why an attorney, police officer, or court official would ask you to wire money or pay using a gift card or cryptocurrency – let alone pick the money up in person.