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Local phone scam victim wants to warn others
CULLMAN — Last week, Pauline Mcnally received a call from a man who claimed to be her grandson. The man told her he was in a Canadian jail and needed money for bail.
Before she knew it, Mcnally had wired $6,000.
“I just got so flustered, I just went along with the whole deal,” Mcnally said. “I thought I was protecting my grandson.”
Mcnally, a Cullman resident, soon learned that the man was not her grandson, but a scam artist.
“I don’t want anybody else to fall for this scam,” she said.
The Canadian scam, in which criminals target seniors and pretend to be their grandchildren in need of bail money, has become more common in recent years, said Lt. Scott Clay of the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office.
“If anyone calls about a loved one in jail, call and confirm it first before sending any money,” Clay said. “Call your relatives ... and you should be able to call that jail ... ask if that person is there.”
Mcnally said the people involved with the scam were very convincing.
“He said, ‘Hi Grandma,’” she said. “When I asked which grandson he was, he said he was the oldest one. He never said his name. But he said my name.”
Clay said it was not unusual that the caller had Mcnally’s name.
“A lot of people will just pull them up at random,” Clay said.
The caller told Mcnally not to contact his father because he was embarrassed that he was in jail. Mcnally was then put in touch with the man’s supposed lawyer, who then told her the bail was $2,950.
He told her to wire the money by Western Union. Mcnally was later told her alleged grandson’s case was postponed until the following morning.
The next day, Mcnally was informed by phone that more bail money was required.
“They said the judge raised the bail,” Mcnally said.
After sending the money, Mcnally decided to call her son, who lives in San Diego, Calif.
“He said his boys were there ... right then I knew I had lost $6,000,” she said.
Mcnally immediately reported the crime to the fraud unit of Western Union and the sheriff’s office.
“We are working on where the money went,” Clay said.
* Patrick McCreless can be reached by e-mail at patrickm@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.
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