Darien Grandma Conned With Phony Bail Call

A 77-year-old Darien grandmother was tricked into wiring $2,400 when she received a phone call from someone purporting to be her grandson.

The scam happened about three weeks before March 28, when the grandmother reported the incident to , said Capt. Frederick W. Komm, commander of the investigative services bureau and a spokesman for the department.

"The scam [...] is an old one, and unfortunately very common," Komm wrote in a statement released Monday to news organizations.

Komm gave this description of the incident:

Early in March, the Darien woman received a phone call from someone claiming to be her grandson, Jamie. He was able to give her information that led her to believe he was her grandson, and told her that when he left a party the night before, he and some friends were arrested.

He told her he needed $2,400 to make bail and gave her a phone number for what he said was a police station in Lima, Peru. He also gave her instructions to go to Western Union and have the money wired there.

Suspicious, she called the number he gave for the police station and spoke with a man purporting to be police officer "Ed Green," who confirmed what the previous caller had told her.

She then wired the money from Stop & Shop on Heights Road, paying a $121 transaction fee, which increased the amount of money she lost to $2,521.

A few days later, she called her actual grandson, Jamie, and asked when he'd be reimbursing her for the money—and discovered Jamie didn't know anything about it and had never been arrested in Lima.

Darien police determined that the phone number for the Lima police station had been disconnected, and no further information about it was found.