(AmericanProsperity.com) – Scammers from the Dominican Republic impersonated elderly people’s grandchildren and other family members to scam them out of thirty-five million dollars. The scammers acted as if they were in emergencies and needed money for bail or legal fees to scam their victims
Philip Sellinger, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, stated that the sixteen scammers conned almost five thousand people who were between the ages of seventy and ninety.
Sellinger explained the crime and what these grandparent scams usually look like by saying, “The phone rings, a caller claims to be a relative, usually a grandchild, in distress – a victim in a car accident or who got arrested – and they need money immediately.”
At this point, the grandparent who thinks that this is their grandchild on the phone is willing to do anything and so they go along with it. They have pulled out thousands to help their “grandchildren” on the other end of the line, but it’s all a scam.
A video that uncovered one of the scamming instances showed the scammer acting as the victim’s grandson, sobbing on the phone, and telling the victim to do “whatever his lawyer tells him to at the bank.”
They would also act as a grandchild, claiming that they were in a car accident and hit a pregnant woman. Sometimes other scammers, called “closers” would call to follow up, whether it be a legal team requesting money or someone else which is where they’d get even more money out of the victim.
Wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering were some of the crimes the eleven men from the Dominican Republic were charged with. In addition, five other Defendants in New York City were also charged as they acted as cash couriers for the crimes.
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