ONLY ON 13: Elderly couple scammed by grandson impersonator

Family members said a scammer called the couple from a spoofed number around 11:18 a.m., claiming to be their grandson.

[ejayemm]

Why didn't he call and check on his grandson first?

[milena]

NO, NO, NO... I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THIS...
SO YOU'RE OLD ENOUGH TO GO AND WITHDRAW MONEY FROM THE BANK, BUT NOT TO RECOGNIZE YOUR OWN GRANDKID? WHOEVER DID THIS, IS SOMEONE THEY ALREADY KNOW.

[steventaylor]

Someone tried to do this to my Mom. We tracked the call to someplace in Russia.

[EMCHobi]

How many times have these scams been profiled on tv and news stories?

[DanielaRodriguez-cqyj]

This is crazy. They recently scammed my dad as well, same tactic. Except they called my dad saying they had kidnapped one of his daughters and they put a random lady on the phone crying. We made a police report but unfortunately these thieves will continue on about their day without a care in the world.

[Bola-pgzw]

All starts with Facebook, and other social media. That's how these scumbags gather information and prey on innocent people. Hope they get justice, ....so sad

[donbeckham]

GoFund Me?!#@$!!!! seriously? If you are so estranged from your family that you don't recognize them, then you shouldn't feel compelled to help them. And, if you are not mentally capable of making proper decisions like this, you should have someone else managing your finances. Don't expect strangers to bail you out when you make mistakes.

This is why the US sucks today. What a wonderful world of e-begging we have built.

You really think a birthday or mother's maiden name will slow them down? Really bad advise.

[a.h.s]

They need to teach them to block all numbers and text messages and emails and everything else, they need to block unknown numbers they don't recognize and never answer them or their grown kids should just keep their phones, it's better to not set up the voice mail so they don't have to listen to any scam voice mails since they can leave them there before they get blocked these new phones can block and report them at the same time now.