Beware of ‘Grandparent Scam’

Cellphone fraudsters have done their homework, Guilford police warn

GUILFORD — Truman Bewley typically won’t answer his phone if he is not familiar with the incoming number. When the caller ID says “SPAM,” Bewley and his wife, Anne-Francoise, never pick up.

That is, until one day they did — unable to clearly read that it was a spam call.

The caller, a scammer, claimed to be their son, Benoit, and said “he was in trouble,” Bewley recalled.

“He claimed he had COVID and that’s why his voice was different,” said the 82-year-old, who at that point took the phone from his wife.

Then, a so-called “police officer” came on the call and gave Bewley the alarming news that “my son had had a car accident and killed a woman who was seven months pregnant,” he recalled.

The demand was $18,000 for bail, said Bewley. Fortunately, while Bewley was talking to the scammer, his wife called their son and learned “he was fine.”

Bewley reflected on the call and said the callers “had done their homework.”

“He had a half hour drive in the morning (to work) and we just snow, so he could possibly have had an accident,” Bewley about his son’s commute.

Known as the “Grandparent Scam,” this type of phone scam has become more prevalent “because of the ease of information that people have at their fingertips,” warned Guilford Police Lt. Martina Jakober.

“Before they call somebody, they already know a huge amount of information about their relatives, their kids, their grandkids, their spouses,” Jakober said.

With this information, the fraudster has leverage with their victim.

“It gives credibility to the caller,” Jakober said.

“They really play on the emotions of grandparents and people who have loved one who may be in that situation,” she said.

“They know that they have somebody on the hook, immediately, and if they keep them on the line they pressure them, ‘This has to be done now, now, now,’ and don’t let them get off the phone,” she said.

The Bewleys called the Guilford Police Department and made a report, which is exactly what it suggested by law enforcement.

The local department also reports these cases to the state of Connecticut and the federal government also keeps track of

“I think it’s very important for us to know to and maybe enhance our preventative measures with education and training and knowing the target audience. That’s very helpful.” Guilford Police Lt. Martina Jakober

fraud cases such as these through the FBI website.

“Consumers reported losing nearly $8.8 billion to fraud in 2022, an increase of more than 30 percent over the previous year,” according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Imposter scams made up the second highest reported loss, “with losses of $2.6 billion reported, up from $2.4 billion in 2021,” according to the site.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong put out a message regarding scammers before the holidays in December. He warned that it is easy today for scammers to gather information on a person and produce a plausible impersonation of a friend or a loved one.

Jakober said it is difficult to know how many residents in Guilford have been targets, as many people don’t report these crimes.

This is especially true for individuals who avoided losing any money.

“I think there’s a lot of people who don’t want to bother us with something that didn’t actually happen,” she said.

Because of this, Jakober said it’s impossible to know how many residents are targeted.

“I think it’s much more prevalent than we know at the police department just because we don’t get all

the reports,” she said.

“I think it’s very important for us to know to and maybe enhance our preventative measures with education and training and knowing the target audience,” she said. “That’s very helpful.”

One suggestion is to have a family code that can be used in these types of situations, said Jakober.

“You want to make sure

it’s a code that no one else would know,” she said. “It’s just a family code. You’re not telling everybody; you’re not putting it out there.”

When these scammers are successful it can be a huge payday for them, said Jakober.

“If they get one person and they get $10,000, that’s cash money, no taxes,” she said. “Say you had 10 victims

a year, that’s a huge amount of money for someone.”

Scammers can be bold and are not afraid to face their victims, according to Jakober. In October 2023 there was a victim in Guilford where the scammers “came to the house and actually collected the money at the house,” she said.

Recent callers have been

“intimating that they were going to come pick it up or have somebody pick it up,” she said.

The Bewley’s call, on 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13, was just one of the scammer calls that have been made to Guilford residents. This came on the heels of another call, to another resident the morning of Monday, Feb. 12.

“It was a scary moment there because we weren’t sure what the truth was and it was very unclear it was a scam,” said Bewley.

“My wife deserves praise because she had the presence of mind to call our son when I was talking to these victimizers,” he said.

“There are a lot of evil people out there,” Bewley said.

Jakober said these are heartbreaking cases for the police to handle.

“The families are out of the money, one, and then they feel like they’ve clearly been victimized and then they feel like they’re not smart, they fell for this scam,” she said.

“These scam sarea dime a dozen and they’ll take advantage of anyone they can,” Jakober said.

Arnold Gold/Hearst Connecticut Media Anne-Francoise Bewley and her husband, Truman, are photographed at their home in Guilford recently with a vacation photograph of their son, Benoit, and his family.

Arnold Gold/Hearst Connecticut Media Truman Bewly and his wife, Anne-Francoise, reflected on the call and said the callers purporting to be their son “had done their homework.”