HomeMy WebLinkAboutEPD_GrandparentScam
City of Edina • 4801 W. 50th St. • Edina, MN 55424
Contact: Kaylin Martin, Communications Assistant
Phone 952-833-9537 • Fax 952-826-0389 • www.EdinaMN.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Employees put a stop to ‘Grandparent Scam’
Edina, Minn., Sept. 20, 2012 – In recent weeks, two Edina residents have fallen prey to the “grandparent
scam,” in which a con artist calls and pretends to be a grandchild in trouble.
On Sept. 10, a grandfather received a call from a man claiming to be his grandson who was crying about
ending up in jail while on a trip to Mexico. He said needed $1,800 wired to him to make bail. Another man
then got on the phone claiming to be the grandson’s lawyer and repeated what the grandson had said.
The grandfather heard his so-called grandson’s plea and wired the money from a Wal-Mart MoneyGram in
Eden Prairie. Later that afternoon, the grandfather received another call from the so-called lawyer asking for
an additional $1,900 because his alleged grandson was on the stand for drugs they had found in his car. The
grandfather complied. It wasn’t until the third visit to MoneyGram, when the alleged lawyer had asked for
$7,800 to be wired to fly the so-called grandson home that a manager at MoneyGram pointed out to the
grandfather that he was most likely being scammed and advised him to stop wiring money.
“We don’t see too many scams like this, but when we do, we do whatever we can to prevent it from going any
further,” said John Moore, Assistant Store Manager of MoneyGram in Eden Prairie. “We have software, too,
that flags or even rejects certain transactions that are high risk.”
The grandfather was able to get in touch with his grandson’s mother to find out that her son is safe at college
and hadn’t taken an impromptu trip to Mexico.
On Sept. 18, a grandmother received a similar call from her so-called grandson who needed $1,000 wired to
him in Canada, where he was allegedly being held in jail for having drugs found in his car while crossing the
U.S. and Canada border. The male asked her not to tell anyone because he was embarrassed. Fortunately, the
grandmother shared information about the call.
On the way to wire the money, a friend of the grandmother’s told her that it sounded like a scam. Once they
arrived, an employee at Action Check Cashing in Hopkins also told the grandmother it appeared to be a scam.
After thinking about it, the grandmother agreed that it didn’t make sense and never wired the money.
Edina Crime Prevention Specialist Molly Anderson warns residents to resist the urge to act quickly.
“Make contact with your grandchild or another family member to discover whether the call is legitimate,” she
said. “Once you wire money, especially overseas, you can’t get it back.”
For more information about financial scams, contact the Edina Police Department at 952-826-1610.
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