April 30 (UPI) — The Department of Justice has charged 16 for their alleged roles in a “grandparent scam” that the DOJ says bilked millions of dollars from elderly residents in the United States.
Eleven of those charged are men located in the Dominican Republic and range from 24 to 59 years of age, DOJ officials announced Tuesday.
A 19-count indictment accuses the 16 defendants of mail and wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering.
A grandparent scam targets grandparents in the United States who would do anything at any cost to help a grandchild who is in distress, Philip Sellinger, U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, said in a virtual announcement Tuesday.
“The phone rings, and the caller claims to be a relative, usually a grandchild, in distress,” Sellinger said. “They’ve been in a car accident or they got arrested and they need money immediately.”
“It’s all a scam,” Sellinger said. “Once the grandparent hands over the cash, it’s almost always gone for good.”
He said most of the grandparents targeted by the alleged scammers were told a grandchild was in “serious legal trouble’ and needs cash right away to post bail or hire a lawyer.
The amounts paid sometimes reach tens of thousands of dollars, and some of the accused visited the homes of victims in New Jersey to collect the cash.
Sellinger said victims were located in northeastern United States, including New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in addition to New Jersey.
The scam defrauded hundreds of elderly victims of millions of dollars.
Sellinger said the scam starts by operators in call centers in the Dominican Republic who are referred to as “openers” and impersonate the children, grandchildren or other relatives of the elderly people targeted.
Technology enabled the scammers to make it seem as though the calls originated within the United States, Sellinger said, and the alleged scammers sometimes would cry and tell the intended victims they loved and trusted them.
They also told the elderly victims to just “do whatever [the lawyer] tells you to do at the bank,” he said.
After the openers complete their part, “closers” would call and impersonate police officers, lawyers or court personnel to get thousands in cash under the pretense of helping their grandchildren.
The grandparents scam has been around for many years and is one of many ways that elder financial abuse has been on the rise in the United States.
Banks have been working to expose such scams and report suspected cases to the Treasury Department.
The American Bankers Association in 2019 said about 70% of all U.S. bank deposits are made by customers who are age 50 and older.