ANOTHER ELDERLY SCAM

Frank Wagner April 1, 2014

274

Brenham police are reporting on another scam victimizing the elderly.

This time an elderly man said he had received a phone call Friday, supposedly from the Las Vegas police department, saying his grandson had been arrested and he needed to send $4000 to bail him out. After the man sent the money he received another call from the same caller saying he now needed to send them four $500 pre-paid debit cards to take care of other legal expenses. The man then sent the cards off only to get yet another call telling him he had to send $1500 for a bus ticket back to Brenham. The man sent a total of $8500, from four different accounts and four different banks.

Brenham Police Chief Rex Phelps says most of us would like to think we would resist such urgent phone calls demanding we send large amounts of money but, he says the scammers employ a number of tactics that could make you take action.

Phelps says recovering the money is often very difficult, if not impossible. Usually such calls come from outside the United States and are not traceable. Chief Phelps says to call the local police or sheriff’s office and not the number of the urgent caller has given you.