received a call asking for my 17 year old son.  How they got his name and my number is beyond me. Said they were in Hulboldt County. Caller identified himself as Shawn McClain. HE claims that he had called his grandfather for help and that his grandfather is the one that gave him our sons name and number. We do not know these people at all.He claimed that his truck had broken down on their way home, which was supposedly hauling wooden flooring.(he and his pregnant wife). He said that they had just enough money to get the truck fixed, but it left them with no money for gas.Also said, they were stuck in a  Wal-mart parking lot and needed money sent via money gram to that Wal-mart. That he had spoken with the mgr. of walmart and the mgr had agreed to let them spend the night in the parking lot if they needed to. I smell SCAM, and I'm worried about how they got my son's name!!!!!!!!!!!

Denise, there was a message on our church answering machine from this same number and name today, 5-26. We are in East Tennessee, not far from Knoxville.  Not sure about the validity of the story, but it is not unheard of that someone will call a church asking for money to be wired to a Wal-Mart somewhere far enough away that no real confirmation of the story can be made. Not sure how someone like this would have gotten your son's name. My guess is that they are confusing him with someone else; perhaps he has the same name as a local preacher?  Did they mention knowing your son's age or knowing anything about him?
Most likely they are calling numerous numbers, hoping to get a hit.

I am the Pastor at a church outside Knoxville and recieved a message to call this same number to a Shawn McClain back. It would seem like the caller is calling a lot of people.

My story is exactly the same story as the first one!!!  We laughed that anyone would think I have money as right now I'm not even working!!!  LOL  Anyway, my pastor said he was sure it was a scam, and there you have it.
dw

Shawn called our church in Oregon, and was asking us to wire money to a Town & Country store in Humboldt.  He said he lives in Wilsonville, Oregon and was needing gas money to come home.  Other than that, his story matched everything said above.  He said that his grandfather has no money, and he has no other family to call on.  He also said that he can't get any money from anyone in Humboldt because of a recent flood (which is true).  I was going to give him a list of churches local to Humboldt, but he hung up.

After this, I called the Town and Country store as well as the Walmart listed in the first story.  Neither of the managers knew anything about Shawn, and they both felt it was a scam.