The phone rang one evening. “Tom,” a Harpswell resident who agreed to share his story on the condition of anonymity, couldn’t quite understand the mumbling voice. “Who do we have here?” asked Tom. “Hi, Grandpa, it’s your grandson,” the voice said. Tom was so excited to hear from his grandson, even saying his grandson’s name, that he didn’t realize the call was the beginning of what is referred to as the “grandparent scam.”
In the first nine months of 2023, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received almost 200 complaints about the grandparent scam, with losses approaching $2 million. In 2022, the center reported that more than 88,000 people older than 60 fell victim to a variety of scams, resulting in more than $3 billion in losses.
“Looking back, I should have gotten the hint right away, because he doesn’t call me Grandpa,” said Tom. “But most of us don’t walk around not trusting people.”