Scammers gonna scam

How one old lady liked to turn the tables

Reading about the arrest of Garth West, one of the ringleaders of the scams that target senior citizens, not only was a nice bit of good news, but it reminded me of a story of my Mom, who passed away a year ago this month.

Mom kept her land line and her directory listing, in case friends from out of town wanted to get ahold of her. When I was a newspaper columnist – and got an unlisted number so my wife didn’t have to deal with the anonymous death threats – Mom got a lot of angry calls from people who disagreed with whatever I’d written, and felt entitled to express this by wishing death upon me or my children.

But the last few years, she was getting the scam calls.

“Grandma?”

And she found delight in playing along.

“Yes, Bobby, is that you?”

(Mom had no children named Bobby ... not that she ever told us, anyway.)

“Yes, Grandma, it’s Bobby! I need help!”

“What’s wrong, Bobby?”

“Oh, Grandma, I’m in jail and need bail money right away!”

“Well, Bobby, you never paid me back the last time I loaned you money.”

“I know, Grandma, but I promise to pay you back this time!”

“And you skipped my birthday, Bobby – that hurt your Grandma very badly.”

She’d string this along for 10 minutes or more before the scammer would finally realize HE was being scammed, and hang up.

I asked her why she did this, and she said that as long as they were on the phone with her, they weren’t taking money from someone else without the wherewithal to protect themselves.

Personally, I think she just enjoyed it.

-30-