A Sacramento woman in her 80′s says she was cheated out of $4,600 dollars by a stranger posing to be her granddaughter. She got a call from the woman on Friday saying she was arrested for marijuana posession in Canada and that she needed money for bail.
“I just wanted to rush and get her out of that jail so she could get back to her baby,” said the woman who wanted to remain anonymous. Police say con artists use the ruse of immediacy so victims make rash decisions. She did ask the woman questions, even though it sounded like her.
“What is your baby’s name and she proceeded to tell me the correct name,” said the woman.
“How could they get her voice to sound so much like my granddaughterI could have sworn it was her.”
Don Luthringer, a friend of the victim’s, speculates that the con artists may have called her daughter or got a voice mail message so they could imitate her voice. He also called real police officers in Canada after someone posing as a officer asked for $3,000 dollars in fines and said the bail would then be refunded.
Canadian authorities say criminals are now doing research on Facebook. When the real granddaughter was finally contacted in Hawaii, she confirmed that her Facebook page had personal information that may have been used in the confidence scheme.
“She answered everything, but it’s all on facebook and they get into your
personal information,” said Luthringer.
“We see this time after time,” said Sacramento Police Sgt. Norm Leong. The red flags for such crimes include when people asked that money be wired somewhere and when they are told not to tell anyone about the situation. In this case, the imposter said she was too embarassed by the arrest and that she didn’t want anyone else in the family to know.
Leong also warned about putting too much personal information on social media sites.
“Your facebook profile, if it’s not locked and secured to certain people,
it’s viewable to other people and your information is out there,” said Leong.
The victim in this case doesn’t exptect to see her money again, but wanted others to be more aware than she was.
Article source: http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-sacramento-woman-victim-of-bai-01102011,0,1803958.story?track=rss
Category: Social Media Threats