Scam Targets Elderly; Scammers Impersonate Grandchildren

ONEIDA — Oneida City Police are alerting area residents to a phone scam that has already been played on one Oneida man.

The victim, an elderly male in this case, receives a phone call from someone stating they are a grandchild of the victim and they have been arrested in another country and need bail money wired to them. Money is then sent by wire to an out-of-the-country location and the victim later learns that their grandchild was not in that country.

The Federal authorities are contacted since the money is picked up outside the country. Tracking down the pickup of the money in these cases is difficult due to the delay in reporting and the locations used by the suspects. They will target elderly victims as they may have grandchildren who do not live nearby or they are unable to quickly confirm that it is not the grandchild, police say.

A previous incident of this type of fraud, with a variation, occurred a few years ago in which the victim was advised that a grandchild had been involved in an accident in Canada, detained and needed money related to the accident. In that case no money was sent. The location of where the money was to be sent was tracked back to a hotel in Toronto and the information was turned over to Canadian authorities.

Anyone receiving a call of this type is asked to contact police.