Decoding a con

Scam on elderly involves gift cards

GRANDMAS and grandpas don’t usually spend thousands of dollars on iTunes gift cards — unless, that is, they are being coerced.

A friend’s grandmother ran into the following scam last week and almost got taken for $15,000. I’ll leave names out because the grandma is already plenty embarrassed. But what she went through is internet scammers’ latest rampant con against the elderly.

The woman, who lives in the Midwest, got an early morning call from someone claiming to be her granddaughter. The girl was crying hysterically. It really wasn’t the granddaughter, but the crying was so loud she couldn’t recognize the voice.

“Grandma, I’m in jail in Las Vegas and I need help,” the weeper said.

Then a guy picked up the phone and said he was a lawyer. The granddaughter was in jail after a traffic mishap, the guy said. She had had a glass of champagne and had to get behind the wheel only because her friend was too drunk to drive, the lawyer explained.

The granddaughter hit a Mercedes, and a 3-year-old kid was injured. “She’s facing three years in jail, but I worked out a deal with the judge,” the fake lawyer said.

All Grandma had to do was buy $15,000 in iTunes gift cards and turn over the codes on the cards to the lawyer — then the whole mess would be forgotten.

It sounds too fake to fly, I know, but it is working across the country and beyond.

Apple, which owns iTunes, has sent out warnings and alerted retailers about selling suspiciously high numbers off iTunes cards.

AARP, which watches out for the 50-plus set, has issued its own warning.

This scam is an old one with a new twist. The con artists used to ask for money — usually because some loved one was supposedly stuck overseas without a visa and needed to get out of jail. Wire money and everything will be OK.

But iTunes gift cards — and other gift cards, for that matter — are far more handy because you don’t actually have to wire anything or even have possession of the card. All the bad guys need is the code on the card.

The codes are then sold by the scammers, usually overseas and at some discount.

In the case I described above, the manager of a Best Buy noticed the transaction and stopped it. He was alerted, I’m told by my friend, by the store’s Geek Squad. Then the family was alerted. The granddaughter was safe in the southern state where she lives — not in Nevada.

I’ve investigated a lot of these scams over the years and have even had fun scamming the scammers. This one I’m playing straight, just to inform you.

Sometimes there are even threats of violence. So call the police if you are targeted.

Or ask the scammers to send the request to you in writing. But don’t give them your address, phone number or any other vital information.

You’ve lived too long to become a sucker now. Bill Dudley should shut up. Dudley, the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, has — like all the other members of the Fed — been wrong about the economy for years.

Ever optimistic, the Wall Street veteran and his crew have constantly predicted rate hikes only to eventually eat their words.

Obviously having not learned a thing from his past mistakes, Dudley this week said (again) a rate hike was possible in September.

These comments came despite the fact that the economy barely budged in the second quarter, rising 1.2 percent on an annualized basis, following a 0.8 percent climb in the first quarter.

Both readings came after the lone rate hike the Fed made last December.

A couple of things seem to have gone right more recently in the economy — if you don’t look too carefully at the numbers.

The gross domestic product for the third quarter, which concludes Sept. 30, might be rising at a more reasonable annual rate of 3.5 percent.

Even if it is growing at that rate, when you put that together with the miserable growth in the first six months, a rate hike isn’t justified.

And there were nice gains in employment during June and July — but only after very favorable seasonal adjustments.

The Fed needs to raise rates and wants to raise rates. And one of these days, Dudley’s prediction of a rate hike will be accurate.

Meanwhile, the Federal Open Market Committee issued its minutes from the last meeting and — as always — some of the voting members thought there should be a rate increase and others thought there shouldn’t be.

The pro-hike group will change its mind as soon as the next series of bad economic data comes along.