YUMA, Ariz. – Bernie Estes, a Yuma senior is speaking out now after being a victim of the ‘grandparents scam’ back in 2012.
The ‘grandparents scam’ is what’s known as someone calling claiming your grandchild is in jail and that you need to send money.
A scam that led Estes to send a money order for $5,000; money she luckily got back.
“A light kind of went off in my head and I called Michael (her grandson) and he answered the phone and I asked are you out already? He said, ‘Out of what?’ and I thought, oh my God. So I rushed back down there and stopped it before it got there,” said Estes.
Since then Estes says she continues to be a target for scams.
“I have been getting calls almost for two years and I haven’t fallen for it but a couple of my friends have. They call and say there’s something wrong with your Microsoft, get on your computer and we’ll help you fix it,” said Estes.
Estes and other friends have had to learn their lesson the hard way.
“She got on the computer and cooperated with them and they said we can fix it for, I think she said $99,” said Estes.
Estes is now speaking out to make seniors more aware of scam callers, unlike what happened to her friends.
“I’m sorry that I wasn’t talking about it more, so that they would understand what was going on,” said Estes.
These senior scams are becoming more common, as reported by the Arizona Attorney General. For now Estes is taking control of the situation, even having some fun with it.
“Either I hang up on them or play with them and tease them and hang on to them for awhile and tell them my computer is not working,” Estes said laughing.