Grandparent scam costs Key man $2,450

A Longboat Key man was defrauded of $2,450 after he transferred money to a man who allegedly claimed to be an attorney representing his grandson.

According to a Nov. 23 police report, the victim received multiple phone calls from a man who said his name was Alan Steinberg and claimed to need $2,450 to pay for court costs that the victim’s grandson incurred for a criminal violation. The caller requested that the man transfer the money immediately via Western Union to a Brooklyn, N.Y., address in order for the violation to remain “confidential.” The caller asked the man to transfer funds to Tracy Francis, who was supposedly the clerk handling court proceedings.

The report states that the man withdrew the money in cash and sent the money with help from his caregiver at 1:54 p.m. Nov. 23. An unknown subject picked up the money at 4:02 p.m. that day at a Brooklyn location.

The man’s caregiver became increasingly suspicious of the incident and called Western Union about 4:10 p.m. in an attempt to cancel the transfer. The victim and caregiver also called police at 4:06 p.m.

The report states that the suspects “were knowledgeable of personal information that only persons close to the family would know.”

Police advised the man to check his financial accounts for possible fraudulent activity and forwarded information, including copies of the Western Union transfer, to the police department’s detective bureau.
Longboat Key Police Capt. Kristina Roberts said that incidents of similar scams have been down recently on the Key.

“We had quite a little flurry there for a while, but this is actually the first one we’ve had in about six months,” she said.

Roberts said that theft cases as a whole typically spike during the holiday season.

Report it
If you are the victim or attempted victim of a monetary scam, the Longboat Key Police Department recommends filing a police report with the town and also reporting it to the National Consumer League Fraud Center at www.fraud.org or by calling 202-835-3353, Ext. 815.

To avoid being a victim of phone solicitations, hang up:
• If you don’t know the person to whom you are talking.
• If an unknown caller asks you for your Social Security number, credit-card numbers, bank account numbers or date of birth.
• If you receive a call asking you to provide personal information to win a prize.
• If you are called and asked to verify information about your credit cards. If the caller claims to be a bank representative, hang up and call your bank directly using a valid number from a telephone book or the bank’s website. Remember, banks will never call you and ask for personal information over the phone.