Scumbags tried to scam my grandmother!

[Dave1982]

My grandmother just called me. It seems that a few days ago someone called her pretending to be me and spun an elaborate tale.

He claimed that he’d just gotten out of the funeral for his friend who had been shot in the Vegas shootings and died after they pulled the plug. He was on his way home in an Uber car when they were stopped by the police, who subsequently found a huge bag of marijuana in the trunk. They all got arrested and thrown in jail. And he needed $3000 for bail.

Apparently he sounded kind of like me so she initially believed him, until he got to actually asking for money, because she knew I would NEVER call her asking for that. Her bullshit detector had been twitching the whole time and that pegged it.

She said she didn’t have that kind of money, and asked why he didn’t try calling his other grandparents.

His answer confirmed her suspicions. He said he didn’t have their number handy.

My grandmother is my last surviving grandparent. The rest all died many years ago.

She told him to call his REAL grandparents and hung up on him.

Idiot picked the wrong grandma to try and scam. Mine is still sharp as a tack and turned the tables on him. She wasn’t even mad; she was laughing while she was telling me.

[Bandit]

For future reference, have her give the number 666 486-3323 to those scammers.

Note: 666 is not a valid area code (never will be) and 486-3323 spells 4UN-DEAD.

B

[Deserted]

No, give them some $20/minute 1-900 number.

[Pixelated]

Good on your grandma! For one horrible minute I thought I was going to read that the scammers had succeeded. I am seriously waiting for the day when my "grandson" or "granddaughter" calls me with a similar scam. Since I never had children ... I plan to have some fun with them.

I like the phone numbers suggested by others here. "I don't have that kind of money, but here's Grandma Marion's phone number." And then pass him along to one of those. Or better yet, the Microsoft "tech" folks ... let one scammer try to scam another.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Oh come on,no-one thought to give them the number of Grandma Jenny on 867-5309?

[Deserted]

No, cuz that might actually get through to someone who would fall for the scam.

[csquared]

You could always give them (770) 216-3000.

[MoonCat]

Give them the number for the federal fraud investigation office.

[taxguykarl]

Oh come on,no-one thought to give them the number of Grandma Jenny on 867-5309?

Thank for nothing, Kit! Now, I'll have that stalkers' anthem in my head all afternoon

My compliments to your grandmother, Dave. Sounds like she would have been good company for mine who would be more inclined to ask where to send the cookies--big on tough love

[Deserted]

When it comes to stalker anthems, nothing beats Every Breath You Take by The Police:

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you

[greek_jester]

When it comes to stalker anthems, nothing beats Every Breath You Take by The Police

Have you ever seen the music video? That really grinds in the fact that it's a stalking song... *shudders*

[Kit-Ginevra]

...and then add in the number of couples who want to have it as a first dance for a wedding because they haven't bothered to listen to the lyrics.

Oh and please...lower the curtains a little.The light's shining right into these bushes here and illuminating me more than I'd like...

[Cia]

My mom received one of those "Grandma I need money" calls - for once she was smart and hung up on them. None of her grandkids would call and ask for money.

Then you have the 'kidnapping' calls. I'd ask them what my kid's name was - it's German and 99% of Americans would pronounce it incorrectly, so no correct pronunciation, no kid.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Once received a text from a friend saying she was caught up in the riots in Ukraine with no money and needed help to get home urgently...which was rather worrying as we'd only sent her into the kitchen five minutes earlier to make our coffee for us...

[Pixelated]

Once received a text from a friend saying she was caught up in the riots in Ukraine with no money and needed help to get home urgently...which was rather worrying as we'd only sent her into the kitchen five minutes earlier to make our coffee for us...

Do you perchance have any kind of teleportation device in your kitchen ... ?

I once got an email from an aunt, saying she was in the UK and had been mugged and they'd gotten all her money and the police weren't helping and blah blah blah.

Pretty interesting since I had spoken to her just the night before and she'd still been in Ontario at the time, and certainly hadn't mentioned skipping off to the UK within the next 12 hours ... you'd think she'd have said something ...

I phoned to let them know what was going on, and on their answering machine my uncle gave his standard greeting, followed by "And if you're calling about the email regarding Barb being in the UK and getting mugged ... "

Apparently they'd already had quite a few calls about it.