Elderly targeted in phone scam

What it’s like

Read this Lawrence resident’s first-hand account of what the phone scam is like.

Lawrence resident Dick Brown received a call last week from his grandson, who told him he had been arrested on charges of drunken driving in Canada.

The grandson needed Brown, 75, to wire him $1,400 for bail.

Only it wasn’t his grandson, a fact Brown discovered too late.

“It’s a scam and I was hit,” Brown said, realizing the ruse when he called his real grandson a few days later.

“It sounded just like him. … I was convinced it was,” Brown said.

Other victims across the state have been hit by the scam. The Kansas Attorney General’s office is warning Kansans to be on the lookout after complaints from two residents in Coffey County.

One of those victims, Jean McCormick, lost $2,300 in a scam nearly identical to Brown’s.

McCormick, 82, said the caller claiming to be her grandson played on the close relationship McCormick has with her real grandson.

“He said, ‘Grandma, I called you because I knew you’d help me,'” McCormick said. “He kept telling me he loved me.”

Jeff Sigler, owner of Sigler Pharmacy, 4525 W. Sixth St., said the scam has affected other Lawrence residents as well.

He said he’s heard a handful of accounts from customers and staff at area doctors’ offices about other Lawrence residents scammed in a similar manner. Some details vary, but Sigler said they follow a similar pattern.

The Attorney General’s office is advising people to contact its Consumer Protection Division at 1-800-432-2310 or local law enforcement if they receive suspicious calls from relatives asking for money.