SAN ANTONIO – The family of a San Antonio grandmother is speaking out to warn others after she fell victim to a phone scam losing $4,000. The scammers claimed her grandson, who lives in Virginia, was in trouble and needed financial help.
“I got a call from my grandma,” Robert Gutierrez said. “She was very frantic and was asking me where are you? Are you ok? I was like what is going on?”
Gutierrez said he was at home with kids relaxing and when he told his grandmother, that is when she knew something was really wrong.
“It dawned on her and she goes ‘Oh my God! I've been scammed today! They scammed me,” said Gutierrez.
They call it the grandparent scam where scammers call elderly people claiming to be relatives in need of financial help. These scammers even impersonated Gutierrez.
“It was a Canadian number and they were telling her that I had gotten pulled over with a friend and that friend had a large amount of narcotics in his trunk,” Gutierrez said. “She told them, ‘You don't sound like Robert.’ They told her ‘Oh I am sorry grandma. There is just a lot of stuff going on grandma. I have been just sick today but I really need your help right now.’”
His grandmother then went to two Walmart locations and purchased 8 gift cards for $500 each.
The tight knit family is outraged but want their story to be a warning to other potential victims.
“These people know exactly what to say and what buttons to push when they call somebody, so their main objective is to get money from these people and they do,” the victim’s brother said. “My feeling is, especially when you do it to the elderly, you are really a low-life person. If that is all you can do is scam people out of their hard earned money. You are nothing.”
Here are signs to look for that will protect you from being a victim of the Grandparent Scam:
- Beware of any urgent solicitation of funds, especially if it is needed to pay for unexpected bills, bail money, lawyer fees or doctor bills.
- Before sending any funds, contact the relative the scammer is claiming to be directly at a known phone number.
- Any urgent request to wire money should be treated suspiciously.
- Scammers call late at night to confuse potential victims.
“It is just not right, because my grandma was coming to visit me because we are about to have another baby, but now she can’t because her money was stolen,” Gutierrez said. “I am hoping we can raise money for her to replace the money she has worked hard to earn.”