Oakes Police Department would like to warn our elderly citizens of a scam circulating the area. We understand that some elderly don’t use social media websites so we are asking you to talk to your parents and grandparents about this. The grandparent scam has been around for a few years. Thanks to the internet and social networking sites, a criminal can sometimes uncover personal information about their targets, which makes the impersonations more believable.

A couple scenarios that have been reported to us are, a grandparent receives a phone call from a “grandchild.” Usually, the person claims to be traveling in a foreign country and has gotten into a bad situation, like being arrested for drugs, getting in a car accident, or being mugged and needs money wired. Sometimes, instead of the “grandchild” making the phone call, the criminal pretends to be an arresting police officer, a lawyer, a doctor at a hospital, or some other person.

If you receive a phone call asking for money or personal information, it is most likely a scam and hang up immediately. Continue to report these scams to us so we can document and continue to put out information for the public. If money has been sent through the mail and it was sent within a few days, contact the post office as they may be able to stop the package from being delivered.  

Scammers are getting more creative and unfortunately, they target the most vulnerable. Please talk to your elderly family members about this so we can make sure they don't fall for these scams in the future.