A Rockcastle County man is hoping others won’t fall for a phone scam that cost him thousands of dollars.
Charlie Page says it started with a phone call at his home in the tiny community of Orlando when he thought it was his grandson on the phone.
“It was his voice, you know,” Page said.
The caller wanted money.
“I asked him. I said, ‘what’s wrong, son?’ he said, ‘I’m in jail’.”
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The caller said he needed $3,000 for bail, and fast. Page was instructed to go to the store and buy money-pak cards so he could send cash instantly over the phone.
“They thought it was a good thing, I guess, because they called us back the next day and wanted $2,000 more. And we gave it to them,” Page said.
Page says the next day he talked to his real grandson who’d never gone to jail. He then realized he’d been duped.
“It made me think we’re not the brightest bears in the woods,” he said. “They couldn’t have pulled this off with a young person. It had to be an elderly person, and I’m 80-years-old, you know.”
He says he’s hoping his story will alert other senior citizens to pay attention and not fall victim to scams. The FBI actually has a name for this scam – they call it the “grandparent scam.”
