Fraud Watch: A cautionary tale from Ann Arbor

By Jean Doss

Yesterday morning, my mom experienced the following attempted fraud. She has given me permission to share, and I would recommend everyone share this with older family members.

My mother is ‘of a certain age,’ has her wits about her, and has lived in the same home in Ann Arbor for 55 years, with the same phone number. My brother and sister-in-law and their two kids also live in Ann Arbor. Their oldest, a son, is 18, and home from college for the summer.

Mom received a call at 8 a.m. on Saturday from a young man saying he was her grandson, that he had been in an accident overnight, was banged up but OK, had been drinking, and was being held in the Ann Arbor city jail. He could only make one call, and asked Mom not to call his mom and dad, that “he wanted to talk to them face to face.” He then said he had a ‘Legal Aid Attorney’ and handed the phone to the attorney. The attorney, “Max Bernstein,” said that my nephew/mom’s grandson needed $2,000 to pay the deductible on the car he hit, which was a rental. The “attorney” said that if they didn’t get the $2,000 soon, my nephew would miss the opportunity to make a court appearance (that morning) and my nephew was going to have to spend the weekend in jail.

My mom told the attorney she was going to call my nephew’s parents. The so-called “attorney” said because my nephew was an adult and because my nephew was “the client,” he could “only talk to who he tells me to talk to…” and so would not talk to my brother and sister-in-law. Mom asked the attorney to call her back. He called her 3 times in total.

My mom called me, and while we were talking, the attorney called her back on another line, and I could tell by her voice that he was pressuring her. I told her to hang up, and that I would call the Ann Arbor city jail and see if my nephew was there.

NOTE: YES, I know… we should have called my brother and sister-in-law right then and there.

But I called the police, and without finishing my first sentence, the police said “this is a scam.” I said we thought so, but my mom could swear that she had talked to her grandson. The police told me it was someone posing as my nephew. Needless to say, I called my brother next, who was sitting there at the breakfast table looking right at his son (who was supposedly in jail!).

Now, my brother was not happy that my mom had not immediately hung up at once, and called him. And he wondered how she could possibly mistake the voice of a stranger for her grandson.

As you read this, it may sound like an obvious scam, that no one in their right mind could fall for it. But remember, it starts with what my mom thought was a call from her grandson. And for whatever reason, this person actually sounded like my 18-year-old nephew, tired, scared and in jail after being in an accident and being arrested for drunk driving. My mom knew something didn’t add up, but it was this ‘actor’ that almost fooled her.

I talked to another friend about this and she said the exact same thing happened to her parents, and her nephew (their grandson), didn’t even live in the same state! They hung up and called their grandson’s parents right away, who confirmed the kid was just fine and not in jail.

My mom was 99% sure it was a scam, but the call from her “grandson” was really convincing. That is what made her pause. Despite possible embarrassment, she is OK with me sharing this - so judge away, but please ask the elders in your life to be aware of this type of scam.

For more information on detecting fraud and scams, visit aarp.org/fraudwatchnetwork