May 25, 2013
An Atlanta-area woman has a warning for others -- don't get scammed.
She says someone called her pretending to be her grandson who needed money.
Now, she's out thousands of dollars.
Mike Petchenik has more.
"It's like I said, I feel stupid. I feel vulnerable."
And this 83-year-old sandy springs woman told us she also feels anger towards a scammer who bilked her out of nearly 6-thousand dollars
"If I ever was near him I'd cut his tongue out so he could never talk."
The grandmother of nine, who asked us to conceal her identity, told me a man called her last week pretending to be one of her grandsons, claiming he was in jail for causing a D-U-I crash. She says another man claiming to be her grandson's lawyer also called.
"I can get this cleared up if you pay the damages."
The woman told me she had a neighbor drive her to a western union where she wired the money to a man in Mexico who she'd never met.
"Just tell them, it's a friend of a friend that you're lending money to."
The woman told me the scammers called her again the next day asking for even more money. And she sent it.
"I guess I'm so naïve. You can't be naïve in today's world."
That's why Sandy Springs police captain Steve Rose says it's important to be vigilant before it happens.
"Just simply say who is this? And verify anything before any funds are sent."
This woman wishes she'd done that.
"He's taken a terrible toll on me."
Police say there isn't much they can do, since the woman wired the money out of the country.
