Blacksmith
03-03-2012, 11:37 PM
This one happened to a good friend who is a level headed guy and who would normally be cautious except when a family member was in need. He sent me the following.
I am trying to notify everybody that I can, that I will no longer be on Facebook, after what happened to me today. At approximately 11:33 AM this morning Friday, March 2 I received a phone call from my granddaughter in Savanna Georgia crying hysterically she told me that she was in a car accident I told her that I didn't recognize her voice, she told me it was probably because she had broken her nose in the accident, I said is this pumpkin, she said yes pop pop your only granddaughter Sally. After the accident she was given a breathalyzer test which showed positive, she was put in jail she told me she needed money for bail and that a public defender was our lawyer and she would transfer me to the public defender because she was only allowed one phone call, she asked me time and time again not to tell her mom and dad or anybody else up here till she had a chance to talk to her mom and dad, she made me promise not to say anything to anybody, I told her that I needed to talk to her mom or dad one and tell them what was going on she said no please pop pop that is why I called you I thought that you were the one that I could most likely depend on. So the call for transfer to the public defender who told me that Sally's bail was set at $5620 and told me do to the severity of the accident the judge had placed a gag order on the case and that I under no circumstances was to tell anyone what the money was for or about the accident. She told me the address and to mail the money by Western Union. This is my granddaughter were talking about, so I immediately went to the credit union and proceeded to fill out the Western Union money gram to pay for her bail. A dear and close friend that works at the credit union is the one I was talking to which is a clerk. She asked me if I had talked to my granddaughter and was I sure that it was her and I said yes she knew too much information for it not to be her. She started to make out the money gram the public defender had forgotten to give me the zip code in Savanna Georgia, Mary the clerk, tried to look it up on the computer, it came back no such address so, I told her I would have to go home and wait for the public defender who was supposed to call me back in a couple hours to and then I would bring the zip code back to the credit union so that the money gram could be sent, the public defender called me and I got her phone number also zip code for Savanna Georgia ,told her I had to go back to the credit union to finish filling out the papers, on the way to the credit union, a lightbulb went off although I told my granddaughter I would not talk to her mom or dad or anybody else I decided to call her mom and I asked her why Sally was in Savanna Georgia she said what?, she said Sally is at work I just talked your her this morning I asked her if she could call Sally and verified that she was at work it was of extreme importance I told her I would explain later and call me back as soon as possible, now I'm setting in the parking lot at the credit union when my daughter-in-law called me back she said Sally is at work I said thank you I went into the credit union and canceled the money gram, Mary the clerk, said Mike I was afraid that it was a scheme, after leaving the credit union I went to the police barracks in town I talked to the state trooper who took my statement, but told me that most likely there would be no report because there was no money exchanged. While setting at the table talking to him I had told him earlier the public defender was supposed to call me back, all the sudden my cell phone rings I looked and sure enough there was a public defender, the state trooper held out his hand for my cell phone, I held up one finger to in order to say wait a minute because I wanted to verified that it was the public defender, it was her, I gave the phone to the trooper he said this is Bob from the credit union and we want to confirm the address and we would also like to have your phone number in case we need to get in touch with you, she gave him the information he asked for, he then asked her if she was a public defender in Savanna Georgia , she said yes, he said well I have a confession to make I am a trooper for a Maryland state police she immediately hung up. This was a very believable scheme these people are smart I know what they are going they do a lot of research the trooper told me that they have had cases like this before and most of the information is acquired from Facebook, like the fact that Sally called me pop pop rather than granddad or something else so I will be deleting Facebook from my computer due to the fact there is too much personal information on it. I would recommend everybody else does the same or be extremely careful about the information that they share with everybody else. Believe me this is very scary if I had made one simple phone call to verify that it was not Sally I would've lost $5620 in a heartbeat. So please if you get a call like this verified who the caller is actually from. From the information the girl that was having hysterics gave me I was positive it was Sally my granddaughter. Please be careful of these people.
The names have been changed. But you gotta be carefull out there.
I am trying to notify everybody that I can, that I will no longer be on Facebook, after what happened to me today. At approximately 11:33 AM this morning Friday, March 2 I received a phone call from my granddaughter in Savanna Georgia crying hysterically she told me that she was in a car accident I told her that I didn't recognize her voice, she told me it was probably because she had broken her nose in the accident, I said is this pumpkin, she said yes pop pop your only granddaughter Sally. After the accident she was given a breathalyzer test which showed positive, she was put in jail she told me she needed money for bail and that a public defender was our lawyer and she would transfer me to the public defender because she was only allowed one phone call, she asked me time and time again not to tell her mom and dad or anybody else up here till she had a chance to talk to her mom and dad, she made me promise not to say anything to anybody, I told her that I needed to talk to her mom or dad one and tell them what was going on she said no please pop pop that is why I called you I thought that you were the one that I could most likely depend on. So the call for transfer to the public defender who told me that Sally's bail was set at $5620 and told me do to the severity of the accident the judge had placed a gag order on the case and that I under no circumstances was to tell anyone what the money was for or about the accident. She told me the address and to mail the money by Western Union. This is my granddaughter were talking about, so I immediately went to the credit union and proceeded to fill out the Western Union money gram to pay for her bail. A dear and close friend that works at the credit union is the one I was talking to which is a clerk. She asked me if I had talked to my granddaughter and was I sure that it was her and I said yes she knew too much information for it not to be her. She started to make out the money gram the public defender had forgotten to give me the zip code in Savanna Georgia, Mary the clerk, tried to look it up on the computer, it came back no such address so, I told her I would have to go home and wait for the public defender who was supposed to call me back in a couple hours to and then I would bring the zip code back to the credit union so that the money gram could be sent, the public defender called me and I got her phone number also zip code for Savanna Georgia ,told her I had to go back to the credit union to finish filling out the papers, on the way to the credit union, a lightbulb went off although I told my granddaughter I would not talk to her mom or dad or anybody else I decided to call her mom and I asked her why Sally was in Savanna Georgia she said what?, she said Sally is at work I just talked your her this morning I asked her if she could call Sally and verified that she was at work it was of extreme importance I told her I would explain later and call me back as soon as possible, now I'm setting in the parking lot at the credit union when my daughter-in-law called me back she said Sally is at work I said thank you I went into the credit union and canceled the money gram, Mary the clerk, said Mike I was afraid that it was a scheme, after leaving the credit union I went to the police barracks in town I talked to the state trooper who took my statement, but told me that most likely there would be no report because there was no money exchanged. While setting at the table talking to him I had told him earlier the public defender was supposed to call me back, all the sudden my cell phone rings I looked and sure enough there was a public defender, the state trooper held out his hand for my cell phone, I held up one finger to in order to say wait a minute because I wanted to verified that it was the public defender, it was her, I gave the phone to the trooper he said this is Bob from the credit union and we want to confirm the address and we would also like to have your phone number in case we need to get in touch with you, she gave him the information he asked for, he then asked her if she was a public defender in Savanna Georgia , she said yes, he said well I have a confession to make I am a trooper for a Maryland state police she immediately hung up. This was a very believable scheme these people are smart I know what they are going they do a lot of research the trooper told me that they have had cases like this before and most of the information is acquired from Facebook, like the fact that Sally called me pop pop rather than granddad or something else so I will be deleting Facebook from my computer due to the fact there is too much personal information on it. I would recommend everybody else does the same or be extremely careful about the information that they share with everybody else. Believe me this is very scary if I had made one simple phone call to verify that it was not Sally I would've lost $5620 in a heartbeat. So please if you get a call like this verified who the caller is actually from. From the information the girl that was having hysterics gave me I was positive it was Sally my granddaughter. Please be careful of these people.
The names have been changed. But you gotta be carefull out there.