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NWR: New heartless scam

I know there are people that scam others for money and I think they are completely terrible people but what I just found out takes this to a new low. I received a frantic call from my MIL this afternoon wanting to know if DH had been out drinking last night. I assured her he hadn't as he worked until 10:00PM and was home shortly after. She was very insistent and wanted to know if I was sure that he hadn't gone out and if I had seen him today. I told her we went to bed at the same time and he was still home when I left for work this morning. Then she wanted to know if he was okay and when was the last time we spoke was. I thought this was very odd but assured her that yes, he was fine and that we had spoken around noon. 

It turns out some idiot called my ILs this morning pretending to be DH saying that he had gotten into a car accident and broke his nose last night because he had been out drinking with some friends and was arrested for a DUI. Then he put his 'lawyer' on the phone who gave a more detailed account of the accident and told my ILs that they needed to send him cash to help with some random charges. 

My MIL said she thought it was sounded suspicious but that she had talked to DH so it was okay (she accounted the slightly different voice to the broken nose). So my ILs went to the bank to get the money and luckily the bank teller flagged the transaction because it sounded fishy. It was then that she called me. They had gotten so worked up they kinda forgot about me/thought I was busy dealing with it too. I don't blame them at all for not calling me immediately. If I had gotten a similar call I would have acted first and asked questions later.

I also called DH at work and let him know to call his parents. He works retail so I know personal calls are frowned upon but his parents needed to hear from him directly. I did my best to calm down MIL but I know her and FIL will still worry until they hear from him.

I can't believe there are people that have that low of morals or ethics that would call up people's parents and pretend that they were their child that had gotten in trouble with the law. I'm seething right now and I'm not sure what to do. I'll talk to DH tonight and see if he was able to get more from his mother than I was. And the possibly call the non-emergency police line.  Thank god we are visiting them this weekend (they live about 1.5 hours away).

Damn, I was actually focused at work (rare) and now I'm kinda all over the place.

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Re: NWR: New heartless scam

  • That is so sad that people would do that. But they know that they can pull on a parent's heart strings when it comes to their children (no matter how old hey are) - especially if the mother answers.

    I am sorry that you and your IL had to deal with that though!

  • That's so awful! I work in news, and we see this all the time, and it makes my blood just boil.
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    I'm gonna go with 'not my circus, not my monkeys.'
  • Thanks, my heart broke while listening to MIL cry over the phone. 

    I know that's exactly why they did it, target people that won't think to really question it
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  • What scumbags!  I hope the cops are able to track down whomever did this and stop them from victimizing others.
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    "I'm not a rude bitch.  I'm ten rude bitches in a large coat."

  • That is absolutely horrible. People make me sick. 



  • How horrid! Hopefully these people are arrested!
  • It actually happened to a friend of mine's grandma just last week. People suck.
     
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  • People do suck! DH was able to get more information from his parents so hopefully that'll help them catch the people.
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  • That is horrible!!!
  • That is beyond awful.
  • OP, that is horrible. Keep us updated if you get any more info. Glad to hear your FI is ok but it sucks that someone tried to take advantage of his family like that.
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  • @belthil Unfortunately here in PR it has become a modality for prisoners to call with similar stories or stories of kidnapping to ask for money from the family members. Im glad you MIL called you before giving them the money and going further. and glad everyone is ok


  • Wow, this is horrible. I'm glad that everyone is okay, and hopefully MIL now knows that DH is fine. Also, good thing the bank thought the transaction was suspicious. People really suck sometimes.
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  • Someone did that to FIs grandparents.  They gave some scammer $7,000 to "bail out" their grandson.  The people who did that were never caught.  The con artists called in the middle of night, which threw FIs grandparents off guard.  They figured if someone called in the middle of the night, it was an emergency. Some people have no souls
  • This happened to my son-in-law's aunt and the call was from my "son-in-law".  She called my DD in hysterics and DD finally convinced her that SIL was at work.  Some people suck.
  • Ugh, some people are horrible!

    On a slightly lighter note, I've been getting those check fraud investigator automated scam calls on my office line, calling for someone else. What's amusing is I work for my state's attny gen., so I just walk the information and latest phone number (local and national) down the hall to the the civil fraud division. Ha!

  • A very similar scam was pulled on my Grandmother a few months ago. Someone pretended to be my brother and called from another country. My Gma wired $7,000 to these people. 
  • That is awful people are asshats

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  • Well that is one plus to FI's parents not having any money to their names.....if someone asked them for $7,000 to save FI they wouldn't have the money to do it. And my parents have money but are far too suspicious of everything, my dad would laugh and say "she's got health insurance and if she's dumb enough to get a DUI she can pay for her own damn lawyer"

    But it's very sad that it happens to so many people.

                                                                     

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  • I can't believe how many people have been or almost been scamed with something similar. I spoke to my mom last night. She had been to a seminar put on by the local police for the exact scam that happened to ILs so she knew exactly who they needed to call. I passed on the information to my ILs last night. MIL seemed to be doing better. 

    The assholes had called them shortly after they left the bank, while they were on their way to the police. Since she knew it was a scam she told him to call back in 5 minutes because they were still waiting on the transaction. When she got to the police station she was told that they weren't able to track the phone and that she could either ignore the caller or answer when he called back. DH called them while they were there and assured her that he was 100% fine. I guess within a minute of getting off the phone with him the scam guy called and my MIL decided to answer. He asked if they had gotten the transfer and her response was "No, I'm at the police station right now and I just spoke to my son. He's fine. You're fucking assholes." and then hung up.

    My MIL is a tiny, super sweet, quiet woman and she never swears. Typically the first person that swears at family get-togethers gets a dirty look. So, despite the situation, it was funny to hear something like that come out of her mouth. 
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  • I was telling my mom about this on the phone this morning and she said something like that happened to my aunt like 5 years ago. Someone called in the middle of the night and posing as my cousin's wife and said that my cousin had been in a bad accident and that they needed money for something. Little did the caller know my cousin and his wife were staying at my aunt's house that night because their house was being treated for termites. So she let them ramble for a minute, hung up, got the phone number off her caller id and gave it to the police.
  • I don't have grandparents anymore, but I called my mom (in her 70s) to warn her about this, and her exact words were 'If you get a DUI, you're on your own'.  I assured her that I'm still usually the designated driver, stop at one drink, or am not at a drinking event, or would call her for a ride if the situation was anything other than the above. I have a free pass to call her any time of the night if I feel like I'm in a situation where I'm not safe to drive, with people who aren't safe to drive, or am in any other unsafe situation. Kinda left over from high school and college days, but she says it's in effect until the day I have to take her keys away.
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