Common Scam Scenarios

She received a frantic call from someone claiming to be her grandson. He said he had been arrested and needed thousands in gift cards immediately — and begged her not to tell anyone. She drove to five different stores and bought the cards before her daughter happened to call. By then thousands of dollars in gift cards was gone. The "grandson" had never been in trouble. Scammers had found his name on social media.

He got a robocall saying his Social Security number had been suspended due to suspicious activity. He was told to call back immediately or face arrest. When he called, a convincing "federal agent" told him to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars in cash and put it in a Bitcoin ATM to "secure" his account while they investigated. He lost everything he had saved for home repairs.

She met someone online who seemed perfect — educated, kind, working overseas as an engineer. After six months of daily messages and video calls he said he needed thousands for a medical emergency to come home and finally meet her. Then thousands more. Then thousands more. When her son noticed and confronted her, she defended the man as her true love. She had lost tens of thousands of dollars to someone she had never met in person.