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Missouri Attorney General Koster warns
Missouri seniors of “grandparent scam”
Jefferson City, Mo. – Attorney General Chris
Koster today issued a Consumer Alert warning
Missouri seniors of a scam aimed at
swindling grandparents out of their savings.
Koster said the scammers will place a phone
call to unsuspecting seniors posing as their
grandchild, saying he has been in an
accident, is in jail—most often for drunk
driving—or that the grandchild is in some
other kind of trouble.
He
said the caller often says that the
grandchild is in Canada and asks the
grandparent to wire money there via Western
Union.
Koster said one worried Missouri grandparent
wired more than $20,000 after receiving a
call from her “grandson” saying that he had
been arrested for DWI in Canada and needed
her to send money.
Koster said that consumer complaint reports
his office has received indicate that the
callers have an uncanny amount of personal
information about the family, often knowing
the grandparent and grandchild’s name.
“The fact that these scammers take advantage
of a grandparent’s love for their
grandchildren by placing these alarming and
frightening calls to con them out of
thousands of dollars is simply
unconscionable,” Koster said.
“I urge anyone receiving such a call to
check with family members to confirm the
call is a hoax. I also urge individuals to
report the call to the Attorney General’s
Consumer Hotline at 1-800-392-8222.”
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