Scammers from the Dominican Republic pretended to be grandkids and other family members of elderly people in order to steal $35 million from them. To trick their victims, the con artists pretended to be in dire need of money for bail or court fees.
Philip Sellinger, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, said that the sixteen con artists ripped off four thousand people aged 70 to 90.
Sellinger talked about the crime and how these grandmother scams usually work by saying, “The phone rings, and someone says they are a relative, usually a grandchild, who is in trouble—they were in an accident or were arrested—and they need money right away.”
The grandparent who thinks it’s their kid on the phone is now ready to do anything, so they do it. A lot of money has been taken out to help their “grandchildren” on the other end of the call, but it’s all a scam.
One of the scams was caught on video with the con artist pretending to be the victim’s grandson, crying on the phone, and telling the victim to do “whatever his lawyer tells him to do at the bank.”
Also, they would lie like a grandchild and say they were in a car crash and hit a pregnant woman. “Closers” would sometimes call to follow up, saying it was a lawyer’s office asking for money or someone else. This is when they’d get even more money from the victim.
They were charged with crimes like wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering. The eleven guys from the Dominican Republic were charged. Five more defendants in New York City were also charged because they helped with the thefts by carrying cash.