Scammer Now Targets Grandmother

A Wilton family was the victim of a tried “grandson in trouble scam” this week, and Wilton police entreated the general public to be conscious of these and other money scams. According to the victim, who asked not to be identified, the family’s grandmother received a telephone call from somebody making a claim to be her grandchild, asserting he was in difficulty.

The caller identifying himself as her grandchild and said that he was at the police station and discussed drugs, the victim expounded. The family went to the Wilton police station, but the boy wasn’t there, and they found him “where he was meant to be, with the Wilton police backing us up,” the victim recounted.

“It was an awful experience.” Lt. Don Wakeman of the Wilton Police Dep. declared this “grandson in trouble scam” has been around “for quite a long time. Over time we have received grouses concerning this. Sadly , the wise guys can be quite convincing during their telephone call.

They generally will research family names and other private info, info often pulled from Facebook and other Net sources. They then try to exploit an individual who is older and may struggle to obviously hear the conversation over the phone.” Lt. Wakeman suggested anyone that receives this type of call “to try to confirm thru other kin where the grandchild is before taking any action. It should be a red flag if the caller demands that no-one else be told of their difficulty, which is what they do to in particular avoid having other family approached. Should any person receive this sort of call it should be reported to their local police department.”.