Darienite (https://darienite.com/tag/ransom-phone-scam)
The FTC just sent a report to Congress called Protecting Older Consumers 2018-2019. The report suggests steps to take to help protect older consumers from fraud. But the evidence also shows a thing or two everyone else can learn from them. Check out the sometimes surprising findings in this year’s report. — This article is from the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Information blog.
A 61-year-old Darien man got some relief when he eventually was able to get in touch with his daughter, but by then he’d already paid out $780 to a caller who victimized him with a phony kidnapping scam. The scam has victimized or nearly victimized other residents in town, and Darien police and others have warned the public about it. Police described what happened with this account:
On Thursday, Feb. 8, a Noroton resident told a police officer that he had just wired $780 to an unknown caller who told him that his daughter was involved in a car accident, that the caller had assaulted her and that if the father didn’t wire money, he’d never see his daughter again. (With minor variations, all of these elements are often in the story phony-kidnapping scammers tell their victims — see the sidebar article below.)
The man wasn’t able to confirm that his daughter wasn’t in any danger, and he feared for her safety.
A Darien woman almost became the victim of a phone scammer who demanded money Wednesday morning after telling her that her husband was being held for ransom, Darien police said. Police described what happened with this account:
The caller told the woman that her husband had been in a car accident, along with the caller’s brother, who is a wanted felon and therefore wouldn’t call police. The caller demanded that the woman stay on the phone while heading to a bank to get money that would be transferred to the caller and his brother. Otherwise, the man threatened, the woman’s husband would be killed. On the way to a bank in town, the woman flagged down two Darien police officers.