Beech Tree News Network

A telephone scam has struck at least one household in the community, and a Morgantown woman took to Bowling Green television to warn about what's called the Grandparents Scam.

June McGuyer was interviewed on WBKO-TV last Friday about a man who called her "Grandma" and asked if she knew who he was; she responded that it sounded like her nephew William in California.  He then claimed to be her nephew, said that he had been in a car accident and was in jail and needed to be bailed out.  She then got a call from someone claiming to be William's public defender and asked McGuyer to send $1,620 via Western Union to a bondsman in the Dominican Republic to avoid U.S. regulations.

At a friend's suggestion, McGuyer called William's number in California and spoke with him, verifying that the previous calls were a scam.  McGuyer then called the Butler County Sheriff's Department to report the calls. According to Sheriff Ward he has received similar calls from individuals. Ward warns everyone to report such calls to his office and to not send money.

On the same day that McGuyer received the scam calls, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported that a Ripley County, Indiana woman had been a victim of the Grandparents Scam and had wired $2,000 to the impostor.  Indiana State Police are warning that state's residents of the scam, according to the Courier-Journal.  The FBI advises on their website fbi.gov that if you receive this type of call, resist the urge to act quickly, try to contact the relative that the caller claims to be as McGuyer did, and never wire money to people you don't know.