{"id":46079,"date":"2025-08-12T23:52:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T04:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=46079"},"modified":"2025-08-12T23:52:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T04:52:45","slug":"cold-hearted-scammers-targeted-hundreds-by-posing-as-grandkids-in-distress-prosecutors-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=46079","title":{"rendered":"‘Cold-hearted\u2019 scammers targeted hundreds by posing as grandkids in distress, prosecutors say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thirteen citizens of the Dominican Republic have been charged with scamming 400 grandparents<\/a> in the U.S. out of $5 million by posing over the phone as their grandchildren in need of help \u2014 sometimes targeting the same victims over and over \u2014 federal prosecutors said Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grandparents in Massachusetts, California, New York, Florida and Maryland received calls from people saying they were their grandchild and had just been in a car accident or arrested or was in the midst of another emergency, said Leah Foley, the U.S. attorney for the district of Massachusetts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their goal, Foley said, was to trick the seniors into handing over their life\u2019s savings to help their loved one. In many instances, Foley said the defendants called panicked victims \u201cagain and again,\u201d feigning another emergency to push for more money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese scams are not just financially devastating, they are emotionally traumatizing,\u201d Foley said Tuesday at a news conference in Boston. \u201cMany victims not only lost their savings, but their sense of safety, judgment and trust in the world around them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors said the defendants ran a sophisticated criminal enterprise from organized call centers in the Dominican Republic. They hired people who spoke English to pose as the grandchildren and lawyers as well as others in the U.S. to collect the cash from victims\u2019 homes, Foley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The average age of the victims was 84, and at least 50 of them were in Massachusetts, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some cases, the fraudsters knew the name of the grandchild, Foley said. In other cases, prosecutors said they followed a vague script, identifying themselves as \u201cyour oldest grandson.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defendants are all citizens of the Dominican Republic. Nine are in custody, while four \u2014 from New York, New Jersey and Florida \u2014 are still at-large, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of them face a conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud charge, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and a money laundering conspiracy charge, which is also punishable by up to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fraud scheme is not uncommon. In March, authorities charged 25 Canadian suspects<\/a> with bilking U.S. seniors out of $21 million in a similar grandparent scam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ted Docks, the special agent in charge of the FBI\u2019s Boston field office, said criminals overseas are \u201cdoing this in epidemic levels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat the accused did in targeting our seniors was calculated, cold-hearted and cruel,\u201d he said. \u201cNo grandparent should ever have to wonder if the next call they get is it a cry for help or a trap.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thirteen citizens of the Dominican Republic have been charged with scamming 400 grandparents in the U.S. out of $5 million by posing over the phone as their grandchildren in need of help \u2014 sometimes targeting the same victims over and over \u2014 federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Grandparents in Massachusetts, California, New York, Florida and Maryland received calls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":46080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5780],"tags":[8441,34333,1752,34331,32560,34332],"class_list":["post-46079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-livehood","tag-5-million-2","tag-dominican-republic-citizen","tag-fraud","tag-grandchild","tag-grandparent","tag-impersonation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46081,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46079\/revisions\/46081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}