Phone scammers targeting elderly
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WARWICK, R.I. (WLNE): A Warwick grandmother is relieved to have her granddaughter by her side after receiving a phone scam that she almost fell for.
“She said I’m surprised you recognized my voice because I have a broken jaw and a broken nose,” Jean Parson, a Warwick resident, recalled while still being shaken up. “I said oh god what happened? She said she was in an automobile accident and it wasn’t her fault.”
The caller who turned out to be a scammer claimed to be Parson’s youngest granddaughter, Emily. The caller said she was in jail after failing a breathalyzer test and needed $5,000 for bail.
“She said you are the only one that can help me,” Parson said. “She was crying the entire time.”
Parson was rattled but knew something was off and called her granddaughter who picked up right away.
“I said where are you? She said I’m home. I said mother of god I thought you were in jail,” Parson said.
On Friday, Warwick Police arrested a man after a similar phone scam.
Luis Valdez was arrested after he tried to pick up a package at a Warwick UPS Facility that had $8,500 inside.
A suspicious UPS driver notified the police and it turned out the money inside the package came from a 94-year-old man in California who was a victim to a phone scam.
“He said yes I got a phone call a couple of days before,” Detective Joseph Hopkins with the Warwick Police Department, recalled. “I was told my grandson was in jail and needed to be bailed out because he got arrested for a DUI in Rhode Island.”
According to Hopkins, the Warwick Police Department says these types of phone scams happen all the time.
“I always thought how people can get into these scams? Don’t you know right away? Then I thought I was almost taken in myself,” Parson said.
©WLNE-TV/ABC6 2019
