The woman, who asked to be identified as Jean, told local news that she initially received a call from somebody who was posing as her grandson. The imposter claimed that he had been arrested for drink driving and asked the grandmother for “bail money”.
“I knew he was a real scammer. I just knew he was going to scam me,” Jean, 73, told local news.
“He starts calling me ‘grandma,’ and then I’m like, I don’t have a grandson that drives, so I knew it was a scam.”
While Jean would have been forgiven for simply hanging up the phone and blocking the number, she decided to use the moment as an opportunity to outwit the scammers and reel them into a trap.
Following Jean’s initial interaction with the would-be thief, the phone calls continued all afternoon with multiple unidentified men pretending to be her grandson’s lawyer and his bail bondsman.
However, the meeting between the pair was not the fruitful exchange that the scammer would have been hoping for.
“I told him I had the money in the house, and I figured, he’s not going to fall for that,” Jean said, adding that she called the police.
“Well, he fell for that hook, line, and sinker.”
A man impersonating a bail bondsman soon arrived on Jean’s doorstep and was handed an envelope that contained a wad of paper towels posing as $8,000 cash.
“I feel like gotcha, and I feel like, like you say, so many people fall for this and you only hear about it on the other end after they’ve lost $8,000,” Jean said.
Although I applaud her courage, I am not sure that luring criminals to her home address was the best tactic in this case. ..?
Such a brave woman to go through with this act, my compliments to her and the police
GREAT JOB