Ethel Lambert had been awake only a moment on Nov. 12 when her phone rang.
The man on the other end of the line sounded desperate.
“Maw-maw, I’m in bad trouble,” he said.
Lambert couldn’t immediately place the voice.
“Is this Little Scotty?” the 89-year-old grandmother asked, using the nickname of her grandson in North Carolina.
“Yes,” the man replied. “I’m in bad trouble.
“I’m in jail and I need $3,000 to get out,” he said. “Can I have a credit card number?”
Lambert’s daughter, Ann Darnell of Coal City, reported Lambert didn’t have a credit card, so she urged the man to call his mother.
Hasty calls to family members revealed Lambert’s grandson had not made the call.
The call had “scared (Lambert) to death,” according to Darnell.
“The fellow was just going along with her. It is so dangerous. What if she had had a credit card?”
Officials in other states, including Virginia, Michigan, Georgia, and Wisconsin, have reported similar scams that involve bail and emergency medical care for a loved one.
The Georgia Department of Human Services even has a name for it: The Grandma Scam.
See the complete story in Saturday's edition of The Register-Herald
Local News
November 20, 2009
Public warned about 'Grandma Scam'
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House passes OPEB; final vote coming in Senate
Barring an unlikely revolt in the Senate, the long-toiled and much-debated solution to the staggering Other Post-Employment Benefits liability is within reach.
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Summers clerks to upgrade vaults
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