Police say Wauwatosa grandmother scammed out of $14,660

Aug. 19, 2013

A woman called police after she was scammed out of $14,660 in multiple telephone calls from people pretending to either be her grandson or authorities on South America.

According to the Wauwatosa police report:

The woman received a phone call from someone saying he was her grandson at 8 a.m. Aug. 5. The man said he crashed his rental car in Mexico City and needed $1,800 wired to him. He also told her he was embarrassed and not to tell his parents. She went to Kmart and wired the money to him.

Thus began a four-day-long phone scam.

The same person called back and said he was jailed by the Mexican Authorities and needed $4,900. She sent him the money. He called again, saying he needed $4,850 to bribe authorities. She sent him the money.

At this point she had sent him so much money that the managers refused to let her send any more money to South America. The managers told her they thought she was being scammed. She went to a Brookfield bank to send $3,000 to Paraguay after the man called, saying he was in jail again.

She continued to get calls from people either pretending to be her son or pretending to be authorities, all asking for money to be transferred to South America.

She finally called her son to see if these claims were true. He told her he had been at work in Wisconsin all week and definitely not in Mexico.

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