Dominican Republic scammers pretended to be grandkids and other family members of elderly people in order to steal $35 million from them. To trick people, the con artists pretended to be in dire need of money for bail or court fees.
Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Philip Sellinger said that the sixteen con artists ripped off about 5,000 people aged 70 to 90.
Sellinger described the crime and how these grandparent scams generally work by saying, “The phone rings, and someone says they are a relative, usually a grandchild, who is in trouble—they were in an accident or were arrested—and they need money right away.”
This is the point where the grandparent who thinks it’s their kid on the phone is ready to do anything, so they do it. It’s all a scam; they took out thousands of dollars to help their “grandchildren” on the other end of the call.
A video of one of the scams showed the con artist calling the victim and pretending to be the victim’s grandson while crying and telling the victim to do “whatever his lawyer tells him to at the bank.”
As a grandchild, they would also say that they were in a car crash and hit a pregnant woman. “Closers” would sometimes call to follow up, often a law team asking for money or someone else. This is when they would get even more money from the victim.
The eleven men from the Dominican Republic were charged with crimes including wire fraud, letter fraud, and money laundering. Five other defendants in New York City were also charged because they helped with the thefts by carrying cash.
