It starts in the middle of the night. A kind soul answers the phone and hears a scared young person’s voice pleading, “Grandpa (or grandma - whoever answers the phone) I’m in trouble and need your help….”

For the past several years, this has become a popular fraud perpetrated against the elderly who believe they are helping one of their grandchildren in a bind. The caller will be young, the phone connection will be bad, but the message will be the same: “Please wire me some money so I can get out of this trouble.”

The scammers are depending on the kind heart of the grandparent and the fact that the elderly victim may not hear very well. Not wanting to insult their “grandchild” by not recognizing the voice, the grandparent will often ask, “Billy, (or Suzy or whomever, depending on the sex of the caller) is that you?”  

At that point, the con artist has the name and the scam continues. “Yeah grandpa/ma, it’s me Billy (or Suzy). I got arrested for fishing without a license (underage drinking, driver's license violation, a misunderstanding or some other minor violation since a grandparent won’t bond Billy or Suzy out for a bank robbery) and I need money wired to Canada to bond out.”

Sometimes an authority figure will get on the phone and confirm the predicament the “grandchild” is in. The authority figure, usually masquerading as a police officer, will explain just what the grandparent has to do to wire the money to release the grandchild.

The grandparent feels good his or her grandchild would trust them enough to call. Since grandpa/ma have been trusted, they won’t want to betray the trust and call the child’s parents, especially since the offense is so petty. They enter into the little conspiracy to help the grandchild in trouble and wind up losing their money to some con artist who can easily pick up the transferred money at any of the 364,000 convenient locations Western Union alone boasts around the world. 

Few of those convenient locations have video cameras, and even if they do, by the time the police figure out where the money was picked up, the video is no longer available and the scammer is long gone.

Western Union’s website lists other frauds used by con artists. To combat the “grandparent scam,” they suggest attempting to contact the grandchild in trouble directly to confirm the situation. If this can't be done, calling other family members or friends to confirm or deny the dilemma is the best course of action.

Wiring money to a stranger or a foreign country should always be a red flag that you are being swindled. If you are wiring money or if you think you might need money wired to you, make sure you have a plan in place before the request is made. 

Have a password or some sort of trouble word worked out between both ends of the transaction. If a secret word is used, it means this is a legitimate transaction. If the word is not used and a money request is made, it means there is trouble call the police.

Lock it up, don’t leave it unattended, be aware and watch out for your neighbors.

Rich Kinsey is a retired Ann Arbor police detective sergeant who now blogs about crime and safety for AnnArbor.com.