‘Grandma scammer’ caught on video swindling a California woman out of $10K, she says

She thought she had received a frantic call from her grandson asking for bail money. The reality turned out to be much worse, she says.

A scammer called Barbara McCullough, from Glendale, California, on Dec. 18, pretending to be her grandson, she says, KCRA reported. The man then gave the phone to someone else, saying it was her grandson’s lawyer.

They told McCullough that her grandson hit a politician’s car and needed $10,000 for bail, the TV station reported.

McCullough withdrew the money to give to her grandson, a student in the Bay Area. Later, she found out that he had never been arrested — but that wasn’t until she gave the money to a man who showed up at her front door, according to CNN.

“It sounded like him. How many times have you heard that story? It sounds just like your grandson,” she told CNN. “I said, how are you and everything. And I said, you know it really doesn’t sound like you, but he said ‘I have a horrible cold’. Then he started crying.”

The scammer was caught collecting the cash from McCullough by the video from a Ring doorbell, according to CBS News.

Seniors are scammed out of around $3 billion yearly, according to the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, CBS reported.

This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 7:35 AM with the headline "‘Grandma scammer’ caught on video swindling a California woman out of $10K, she says."