I'm still a little shaky. I just got off the phone with my sister-in-law's mother-in-law, who was extremely worried because she had received a couple of phone calls that her grandson, our nephew, was in jail in Mexico City for drunk driving and needed bail money.
She acted pretty smart. After the first call she called the American consulate in Mexico City to ask for verification and my nephew's college to ask them to verify that he was there. She got a second call, allegedly from my nephew, and when she told him she was waiting for verification, he hung up. Then she called us, because she couldn't get ahold of the boy's mother.
We had heard of this scam before, people calling older people and claiming to be relatives in trouble, in Mexico City or London usually, and asking for money to be wired. So I reassured her right away that that's probably what this was.
While we were talking, my (real) nephew called her on the other line and confirmed he was in California and still didn't know how to drive.
So yeah, it was a scam, and no, she didn't get taken in. Phew.
But watch out for this. Scammers will call up people with old-fashioned names, figuring they're likely to be older, with young relatives they care about but maybe aren't in constant touch with, and fool them into wiring money into foreign countries. Be aware that scammers are doing this.
She acted pretty smart. After the first call she called the American consulate in Mexico City to ask for verification and my nephew's college to ask them to verify that he was there. She got a second call, allegedly from my nephew, and when she told him she was waiting for verification, he hung up. Then she called us, because she couldn't get ahold of the boy's mother.
We had heard of this scam before, people calling older people and claiming to be relatives in trouble, in Mexico City or London usually, and asking for money to be wired. So I reassured her right away that that's probably what this was.
While we were talking, my (real) nephew called her on the other line and confirmed he was in California and still didn't know how to drive.
So yeah, it was a scam, and no, she didn't get taken in. Phew.
But watch out for this. Scammers will call up people with old-fashioned names, figuring they're likely to be older, with young relatives they care about but maybe aren't in constant touch with, and fool them into wiring money into foreign countries. Be aware that scammers are doing this.
