PSA: Scam, my in-laws got hit today

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
126
so i got a text from my wife this morning at work saying her mom called her to let us know that our daughter was in Utah, was driving drunk was in a accident and was in jail. but she has a broken nose along with the woman she hit and spent time at the ER before beeing booked. WTF WTF WTF!!!!

these people put the urgancy in my FIL that the bail had to be paid immediately. so he had already hauled ass to get the money then to walmart to wire it. we are calling him, desperately calling hime to do not do it. we need more info like what happened, where, what jail she is in,

while im at work im looking at accident/DUI reports in UTAH and im looking at her facebook page. about a hour after i get the initital phone call from my wife my daughter Facebook page updates about the pipeline conflict going oin North dakota. Im like WTF!!! she cant be posting in jail, and i dont think her POS boyfriend would have her phone. it would be logged and bagged during booking.

I get home and we head straight to In laws house to find out wtf is going on since neither of them are answer thir phone, fearing the took off to Utah to get my kid, thier granddaughter out of trouble.

They are home but had phone on silent... (old people) so we sit down at the kitchen table, my sister in laws on on speaker and we drill into this. things are starting to add up.

the scam started like this, some woman calls and the line has a terrible connection and my FIL law says my daghters name is that you? the woman says yes and gives this quick sob story that she was drunk, got in a accident and was in jail and needs money to get out. and do not call mom and dad (us) she does not want them to know... they made it a typical 5 min jail call.

5 min later a man calls and gives them info that bail is 7k, but the judge reduced it to 2500. my FIL talls them that he only has 2200 in the bank. so the asshat on the phone instructs my FIL to get the money and got to wamart for a money gram and he sent it to New Jersey.

we he said that we all looked at each other with that OHHH SHIT look. and just then my Inlaws neighbor comes over and is aware of the situation and says, "hey i think i just saw their van at her job. so we call her work and much to everybody's relief she is at work and thinks we have all lost our minds.

god damn what a fucking day. glad my kid is ok but feel bad with my FIL taking off without calling us and sending a lot of money to a scam. i also feel bad for him because my MIL had that white hot murder in her eyes.

anyway, pass this along. there are some real scumbags out there hunting with success.

to clear this up because i know somebody is going to bring it up. why didnt we just call her? well things happened over the summer and there was a falling out. her POS boyfriend made her get a new phone and changed the number. and she is not on facebook very much so a dead end there. luckily the neighbor saw her van and thats when we all looked at each other and yelled, call her work!!
 
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Annisman*

Golden Member
Aug 20, 2010
1,931
95
91
They did this to my almost 90 year old grandparents last year, thankfully they're incredibly smart for their age and they know their grandchildren aren't the kind of people that would find themselves in a jailcell for the night so after a few minutes they gave the scammer the geriatric version of GTFO !
 

MustISO

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,927
12
81
I've heard many different versions of this recently with all kinds of stories. There's one where they call the parents of college kids and say they've been kidnapped. I was actually at a friends house a few years ago when someone called and said the wife was in an accident with a gang banger and that they were demanding money or they would hurt her. We just called the wife from another phone and confirmed she was fine.
 

deadlyapp

Diamond Member
Apr 25, 2004
6,677
751
126
This has happened to my grandmother a few times now. After the first time her and I discussed a "safe" word to use in case she's contacted by someone claiming to be me so she can verify my identity. Thankfully she's pretty sharp for a nearly 90 year old.
 
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OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
126