Delpha Speak has 13 grandchildren and she didn't think it was completely implausible that one of her grandsons-in-law would call her to say he was in trouble. The 72-year-old retiree could tell something was wrong, and she wanted to do whatever she could to help.
But it was that concern that almost caught her up in what the state attorney general's office said is a common scam targeting older folks.
"He said, `Grandma,' and I said, `Which grandson?" Speak said. "He said, `Guess,' and I said, `Oh, it's Jamie,' and he said, `Yeah, it's Jamie.'"
She said her grandson-in-law lives in Kansas City and frequently travels for business, so when he said he was in Niagra Falls, Ontario, Canada, she believed him.
"He said, `Grandma, I'm really in trouble,'" she said. "He said, `I've had a car wreck and I have to have $5,000 to get out of the police station.'"
The caller urged her to wire the money via MoneyGram at Wal-Mart and begged her not to call her granddaughter.
"By now he was crying almost," Speak said. "He said, `Don't tell anyone, because I didn't tell anyone I was coming here.'"
After she hung up, she told her husband about the call and he headed to the bank to get the money. Then her curiosity got the best of her and she called the police station.
"As soon as I said do you have Jamie, my grandson, there, they said, `Ma'am, it's a scam,'" she said. "They're calling people from out of the country, and it's always grandparents."
Good thing my grandma doesn't speak english.
