“Grandparent Scam” yet again Spreading: FBI

A warning by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) calls upon citizens for remaining vigilant about the "Grandparent e-mail/telephone scam," which has re-merged after intermittently appearing ever-since 2008, while especially aiming at elderly people. Huffingtonpost.com published this dated April 10, 2012.

Scammers, says FBI, operate the scam by sending a fake e-mail or making one similar telephone call to a grandparent, making him believe it's from his grandchild. The communication will assert it's from a relative touring abroad where police have arrested him; met with an accident alternatively; been robbed, therefore he requires money wired at the earliest. The message communicator as well asks his grandparent against informing his guardians of the unfortunate happening.

Remarking about this kind of fraud, Lt. David Turno of Aiken Public Safety for Aiken City in South Carolina stated that they were extremely hard to resolve. The majority of the frauds occurred in a foreign country so it could be almost impracticable to trace the culprits' origin, he explained. Aikenstandard.com published this on April 12, 2012.

Turno added that recipients of the e-mail or telephone call could best erase the message or disconnect the line immediately so the possibilities about getting victimized with the scams became minimized.

Yet, plentiful inhabitants worldwide already have been victimized with the above types of scam telephone calls or e-mails, the FBI highlights.

Meanwhile, officials of law enforcement agencies state that scammers perpetuating the frauds have become more sophisticated now, stealing and utilizing personal information especially from Facebook or other social-networking sites.

The FBI therefore urges citizens for recognizing the urgency depicted in the scams for fast action, and directly contact the communicator for verifying whether the e-mail or telephone call attempted in fact is real, while not sending any money whatsoever. A method for doing so is to place one query, which the target person knows solely his actual relative/friend, can give a reply to. The bureau warns against sending cash because it means losing the money since once it's sent there's no chance of ever retrieving it. Hence, recipients of such telephone calls/e-mails should think again prior to reacting to them.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 4/18/2012