In July, I was at home tidying up in the kitchen when I received a phone call from what sounded like my grandson. He claimed to have been in a car accident and hit a pregnant woman while texting. He begged me not to tell his parents, because he was scared they would be angry. A second man, who identified himself as my grandson’s lawyer, came on the phone and requested $7,500 for bail and said that a gag order was in place.
The phone call was such a shock, and I didn’t want my grandson to get into more trouble than he already had; I went to my bank and withdrew the money and placed it in a banking envelope. The “lawyer” provided me with a fake case number, which made the scam feel legitimate at the time. Later the same afternoon, a courier came to my house to pick up the envelope.
The next day I was still very upset and knew that something felt off. I called my daughter to see if my grandson was doing alright. It became apparent that the whole thing was a scam. We reported the incident to police, who confirmed the fraud technique. They were able to apprehend two individuals a short while later and luckily my money was recovered. I feel very fortunate because something similar happened to a friend of mine, and his money was never recovered.