Unfortunately, I have been the victim of identity theft. My grandfather was contacted on the phone by an individual who was pretending to be me. The person told him that he had driven down to Mexico in a rental car for the weekend and was involved in a minor accident and needs $4,000 to be wired to him ASAP and to not tell my parents. Being the loving and caring individual that my Grandfather was (he passed away a few years ago), he rushed to his local bank and wired the money to the identity thief pretending to be me to a Western Union account in Mexico. It was not until a few months later that my Father asked me if I was ok and what had happened, before realizing that my Grandfather was scammed. My Grandfather filed a claim with his bank contesting the wire transfer to Western Union on the pretense that they allowed an individual to falsify my identity to create a Western Union account in my name. However, his claim was dismissed because there is nothing that can be done concerning international wire transfers. Have you or anyone you known been the victim of identity theft and what was the end result?
This is so upsetting to hear, and I’m sorry it affected your family. I know he loves you and was instantly worried about you, probably with no hesitation he wanted to help! My grandma received a call like this, and the individual pretended to be a cousin of mine. Luckily, she called his father, her son prior to wiring the money just to double check if the family and my cousin were OK (despite the man on the phone telling her not to tell the rest of the family). My uncle knew immediately it was a scam and we were able to intervene early.
What is difficult with these types of cases is that it is often not protected in any way, especially when the cash is sent through a wire transfer. Although it wouldn’t have helped in this situation, I do urge people to take a look at identity theft coverage being added to their homeowners insurance. Often this is fairly low cost and is an optional add on to your homeowners or renters policy (some Agent’s may automatically add this to each homeowners policy in the quoting phase, but others may not so it’s worth the ask). When the identity theft expands and includes stealing your social security number, that will become a full time job for you for months, if not years. It includes not only trying to recover your identity, but also removing loans/mortgages/credit cards taken out in your name, locating duplicate passports, and so on. Often, this requires a lawyer and the additional coverage allows you the peace of mind to know that those legal fees and the sheer time spent on recovery are covered by insurance. Something like the wiring money scam that went around a few years ago feels really close to a SSN loss, and I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already!
Unfortunately, something similar happened to my family as well. They called my parents about my son. They had my parents fooled for a while but eventually realized it was a scam so no money was lost.
It’s horrible to use someone’s love and affection for someone towards evil!
I’m at least happy to hear that you can be protected through your home insurance on these types of scams. I will check it out myself and will be sure to pass it on. Thank you for the suggestion!
Has anyone else had a similar experience?