Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and the Iowa Department of Public Safety are warning Iowans to be aware of a new wave of “grandparent scams.”
Several Iowa communities throughout the state have recently reported efforts by criminal groups to swindle predominantly older Iowans. This scam is not new, the Attorney General’s Office has been warning Iowans about the grandparent scam since at least 2008.
In a grandparent scam, con artists call the victim posing as a grandchild and claiming they have been in an accident, hospitalized, jailed, or even in a foreign country, then ask the grandparent to send money to help them.
The Department of Public Safety and the attorney general say to protect against the grandparent scam, end any calls and verify the information, contact a trusted family member, verify the person’s identity, report the scam to local law enforcement authorities, and file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.
