Shola Lee
73-Year-Old Grandma Outsmarts Men Who Tried To Scam Her Out Of $8,000 (Nassau County Police Department/Alamy)
A grandmother in Long Island, New York, managed to outsmart scammers attempting to take $8,000.
Jean, 73, said the scammers called her claiming to be her grandson. The men in question said that her grandson had been arrested for drink-driving and needed bail money.
However, Jean, who currently lives in Seaford, didn't fall for the call.
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Speaking with CBS2, Jean said she new quickly that the call was a scam, 'I knew he was a real scammer. I just knew he wasn't going to scam me'.
Jean added that the key giveaway was that her grandson doesn't drive. She continued to say: 'he starts calling me 'grandma,' and then I'm like, I don't have a grandson that drives, so I knew it was a scam'.
According to a press release, the scam involved several calls from a group of unidentified men.
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One of the men pretended to be a bondsman and another a lawyer for Jean's grandson, asking for the $8,000 to bail him out. So, Jean decided to play the scammers at their own game.
She said, 'I told him I had the money in the house, and I figured, he's not going to fall for that, well, he fell for that hook, line, and sinker.'
After telling the scammers she had the money at home, the man impersonating the bondsman arrived. Jean proceeded to hand him an envelope filled with paper towels.
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Then, as the scammer went to leave, police officers from the Nassau County Police Department tackled him.
The man in question was Joshua Estrella Gomez, who was charged with attempted grand larceny in the third degree. Gomez has since been released on an appearance ticket and is due to go to court on February 3.
Jean spoke about the satisfying end to her close run-in with the scammers, explaining, 'I feel like gotcha, and I feel like, like you say, so many people fall for this and you only hear about it on the other end after they've lost $8,000'.
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Richard Lebrun of the Nassau County Police Department spoke to Insider about how to best avoid being scammed.
He said 'Resist the pressure to act immediately, legitimate business will give you time to make payments'.
Lebrun went on to add that people should 'Never pay with gift cards or wire money to an unknown person or business' in order to avoid losing money.
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