Alert employees stop 'grandparent scam'

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - The phone rings.  The voice on the other end sounds frantic.   It is from someone claiming to be a loved one stuck in a foreign country and in need of money. 

John Cline of Independence got this kind of phone call.  The voice on the other end said it was his grandson.  He was stuck in Lima, Peru after getting into a car accident.  He needed money. 

"I thought… it sounded just like him,” Cline said.

Another person got on the phone claiming to be with the American Embassy in Peru.   That man told Cline to wire $2,800 by the end of the day or his grandson would miss his flight home. 

Cline wanted to help who he thought was his grandson.  He went to a Western Union inside a Blue Springs Price Chopper to wire the money.  That is when employees started to question Cline.  

"She said to me, you know, I just got a bad feeling about this.  I really hate to see you lose your money.  She said, 'I think this maybe a scam,'" Cline said.

Employees at the store said they stopped another customer from making the same mistake days before Cline’s visit.    

"The red flags were up for us.  We have Western Union training to prevent those types of things from going through,” said store director Jaysen Pauley. 

It is called the grandparent scam.  Recent reports show the scammers are getting more sophisticated by calling grandparents and using the names of family members who claim to be in trouble in another country. 

Cline does not know how the caller got his name or his grandson’s name. 

“I figured if I could just save one person from sending money out and losing it on a scam like this, it's worth talking to somebody about,” Cline said. 

The Better Business Bureau recommends some tips if you receive a call from someone claiming to be a relative in need of help. 

1)    Confirm the story by calling the person back or calling another family member

2)     Limit personal information on sites like Facebook

3)     Contact the FBI to report the call

Read more recommendations from the BBB . 

In Cline’s case, he was able to reach another family member who confirmed his grandson was still in the area.