Woman Wires Thousands In Phone Scam

A Vienna woman was scammed out of thousands of dollars by a phone scam in which the caller posed as her grandson.

A woman on Pickett Place SW reported at 1 p.m. March 29, she received a phone call from someone who said he was her grandson. He said he needed money because he had been involved in an accident.

The caller spoke in broken speech in an attempt to get the victim to use a name to inquire as to his identity, the woman said. Once the caller heard the woman use a name, he was able to communicate as that person to make the call believable.

A third party then contacted the woman and had her wire several thousand dollars to a location in Spain. After sending the first wire transfer the woman was contacted again and told to wire some more money. She then did so.

After a period of time the grandmother contacted her grandson and learned that he had never travelled to Spain and was fine and that this was a wire scam.

Police said the scam is common, and warn residents to always verify requests for money with the original source.