Best report
ϟ
Jun 13, 2011
I received such a phone call shortly I had surgery so I wasn't tracking the best. I was napping in bed when a very distraught, sobbing young man claiming by name to be my nephew called me and told me that he had been in a bad auto accident with others (I even thought at first that there were fatalities) and that the police had found a pile of illegal drugs in the trunk and that he is being held in another country for drug trafficking.
Behind him is what sounds like a muffled conference room and he sounds very distraught. He tells me that his parents are away on a cruise (which they do each year at the same time to celebrate on their anniversary and I knew that) and he can't get to them and that I am the only person he can go to. (The thieves have obviously targeting me and have done considerable online research about the family to make the dialogue very realistic.) The "nephew" sounds terrified and so upset that he is incoherent and says that he "does not do drugs and never has, but that he took a trip with a friend who told him that he had won a trip and later hooked up with others." The nephew claims to be innocent and that he had no drugs on him and that he was tested for drugs and proved clean.
The "Officer Reilly" cuts him off and tells me that by law he was allowed only one phone call and that was it. Reilly tells me that he was picked up in Lima with known drug traffickers but was found to have no drugs and did indeed test negative for drugs ("and they can check for months back and he was clean") and makes it apparent that the nephew seems innocent but is still being charged with a major crime in a foreign country where he knows no one else. I am told that if I send bail money and he testified against the drug traffickers he will be allowed to return to the US. Reilly and the nephew actor are SUPER SLICK--the nephew sounded so terrified that in retrospect he might have had a gun to his head or have been in the last stages of heroin withdrawal (more likely). I am told to Western Union $3800 in my nephew's name ASAP (they even look up my phone number and suggest local supermarket WU outlets nearby to help me out). These guys are very adept with phones and computers and may even have a sound lab behind them--after I was told the call was from the Lima embassy I could almost make out faint Spanish sounds in the background. I wanted to help out my brother thinking that I would want him to do the same for my children.
They give me a phone # (later found to be in Quebec, not Peru and sadly I was not feeling well enough to think to check it since everything else seemed to fall into place) to call after giving Western Union cash to send in my nephew's name. (They must have fake ID at other end, and I think that WU must have insiders as well who allow for easy pickup...) I also think that they must have people in financial institutions checking out cash advance allowances and bank account balances even before the call is made--targeting is very well-conceived and this is apparently a large international ring with high-level actors working with variable scripts. I was also told that I would have to talk to the court-appointed attorney, a Mr. Larry Goldman. When I called Goldman another man answered transferred the call back to the "conference room" where I got not Mr. Goldman, but "Dave Reilly" (the diligent cop only looking out for the welfare of young Americans) who assured me that things went well and that processing was nearly done. He called me a little while later to assure me that everything was okay and that my nephew would be calling me very soon (never happened).
This is a very, very sophisticated operation and the people who are duped are not necessarily doddering, feeble, hard-of-hearing seniors. Everything is tailored seamlessly because they have already done their homework. If it is the Mafia, they have come a long way into the digital world and no longer engage in shootouts in speakeasies--this scenario is worthy of a TV show because it is so slick.
And the last person is right--there is no disclaimer on the WU paperwork. My son called that night and I told him what happened and he told me to immediately contact the police, which I did. I went back to where I sent the money and there was a leaflet about fraud in the back of the form holder, but it was hidden so far away that it would not be seen unless you were specifically looking for it. I do think that WU should be legally challenged on this--maybe to the point of requiring clerks to repeat a standard verbal warning when large amounts are sent out of the country.
I feel very vulnerable now and realize that there really are scummy, evil people out there scheming to get you in very subtle ways.
Behind him is what sounds like a muffled conference room and he sounds very distraught. He tells me that his parents are away on a cruise (which they do each year at the same time to celebrate on their anniversary and I knew that) and he can't get to them and that I am the only person he can go to. (The thieves have obviously targeting me and have done considerable online research about the family to make the dialogue very realistic.) The "nephew" sounds terrified and so upset that he is incoherent and says that he "does not do drugs and never has, but that he took a trip with a friend who told him that he had won a trip and later hooked up with others." The nephew claims to be innocent and that he had no drugs on him and that he was tested for drugs and proved clean.
The "Officer Reilly" cuts him off and tells me that by law he was allowed only one phone call and that was it. Reilly tells me that he was picked up in Lima with known drug traffickers but was found to have no drugs and did indeed test negative for drugs ("and they can check for months back and he was clean") and makes it apparent that the nephew seems innocent but is still being charged with a major crime in a foreign country where he knows no one else. I am told that if I send bail money and he testified against the drug traffickers he will be allowed to return to the US. Reilly and the nephew actor are SUPER SLICK--the nephew sounded so terrified that in retrospect he might have had a gun to his head or have been in the last stages of heroin withdrawal (more likely). I am told to Western Union $3800 in my nephew's name ASAP (they even look up my phone number and suggest local supermarket WU outlets nearby to help me out). These guys are very adept with phones and computers and may even have a sound lab behind them--after I was told the call was from the Lima embassy I could almost make out faint Spanish sounds in the background. I wanted to help out my brother thinking that I would want him to do the same for my children.
They give me a phone # (later found to be in Quebec, not Peru and sadly I was not feeling well enough to think to check it since everything else seemed to fall into place) to call after giving Western Union cash to send in my nephew's name. (They must have fake ID at other end, and I think that WU must have insiders as well who allow for easy pickup...) I also think that they must have people in financial institutions checking out cash advance allowances and bank account balances even before the call is made--targeting is very well-conceived and this is apparently a large international ring with high-level actors working with variable scripts. I was also told that I would have to talk to the court-appointed attorney, a Mr. Larry Goldman. When I called Goldman another man answered transferred the call back to the "conference room" where I got not Mr. Goldman, but "Dave Reilly" (the diligent cop only looking out for the welfare of young Americans) who assured me that things went well and that processing was nearly done. He called me a little while later to assure me that everything was okay and that my nephew would be calling me very soon (never happened).
This is a very, very sophisticated operation and the people who are duped are not necessarily doddering, feeble, hard-of-hearing seniors. Everything is tailored seamlessly because they have already done their homework. If it is the Mafia, they have come a long way into the digital world and no longer engage in shootouts in speakeasies--this scenario is worthy of a TV show because it is so slick.
And the last person is right--there is no disclaimer on the WU paperwork. My son called that night and I told him what happened and he told me to immediately contact the police, which I did. I went back to where I sent the money and there was a leaflet about fraud in the back of the form holder, but it was hidden so far away that it would not be seen unless you were specifically looking for it. I do think that WU should be legally challenged on this--maybe to the point of requiring clerks to repeat a standard verbal warning when large amounts are sent out of the country.
I feel very vulnerable now and realize that there really are scummy, evil people out there scheming to get you in very subtle ways.