When our story “Grandpa, I’m in Trouble” (September/October), about how the grandparent scam works, was posted on our website, it didn’t take long for a conversation to start over at Reddit. A few highlights:
TaintedShirt writes:
“This has been a huge problem in Japan. The banks now routinely stop elderly people coming in looking to withdraw large sums of cash.”
Abap01 adds:
“Some guy convinced [my grandmother] that he was me. … The thing that annoys me most is that several of my grandparents’ other relatives … are convinced that I must have been in on it or somebody I know did it. They said as much to me while I was keeping my grandmother company in hospice, of all places.”
And a refreshing tale from LastOneGotAShadowBan:
“[My grandmother] got a call from someone claiming to be my brother. He said that he and some buddies went to Vegas. … My grandmother asked why he didn’t call his uncle because he’s a millionaire (literally). The caller didn’t really know what to say and tried to make crying sounds. Then, she asked the caller what he planned to do about missing work. She mentioned the dinner that she had with my brother the night before and asked why he never mentioned that he was going to Vegas. She then said she was going to hang up if he didn’t tell her the name of his cat. The guy guessed a bunch of names, and she hung up.”
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