pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

Someone just called me and this is how the conversation went:

Caller: I got this number from your dad's phone. He just crashed his car into my brother's BMW.

Me: What? Where are you?

Caller: Listen to me!

Me: I'm listening, but where are you?

Caller: Listen to me! Your dad crashed into my brother's car, and we're not calling the police because we've had problems with them in the past. My brother has him tied up here, and he's going to kill him.

Me: Wait!! What's going on? What do you want?

(meanwhile, I'm frantically trying to call my dad on the other line, but it's going to voicemail)

Calller: Listen to me. If you wire us $1500 right now, we won't kill your dad.

Me: Okay, no problem. Where do I wire the money? (I didn't actually have plans to do so, but thought it might stall.)

Caller: Listen to me!!! You need to go to the bank right now and wire the $1500 or we're going to kill your dad.

At this point, I was almost 100% sure it was a scam, and I'd realized I was basically screwed either way, because I'm in Europe and can't go to a bank and wire money, so I hung up.

Ultimately, I got in touch with my mom, who assured me that my dad was fine. But it was definitely terrifying for a minute!!

So beware!! The number was 917-862 3976 and looking on Google, it seems like they've done this before from the same number.

Message edited 8/13/2014 3:35:44 PM.

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

OMG! How scary!!!

Thank god it was just a scam

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

That's pretty frightening.

And just another reminder of why I always screen my calls.

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

I called the phone number to see what I could find out and the VM is set up, no answer.

Found this

http://www.longislandfirearms.com/forum/topic/107769-917-862-3976-watch-out-for-this-number/

pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

OMG that is scary. I would report that to the police.

pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

Holy crap! So scary!

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

omg! so scary!

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

OMG

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

OMG. Can you report it to the police?

pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

My heart would burst out of my chest! That is terrifying!

pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

Holy shite. I would be so scared. My mind would be stuck on the accident part. I wouldn't wire money but would have called 911 if I couldn't get in touch w my dad. So insane. People are SICK!

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

I would 100% report this to the police. That is awful!

pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

Omg I would have a heart attack. I would def report it to police.

That is sick sht!

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

Thats is horrifying!!!! I'm so sorry you had to go through that!

If they called me and I told them the truth "My dad died when I was 10, so that's impossible" I would've loved to hear what happened next. probably a hang up.

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

My mom had this when I was in high school. Someone called her and claimed they kidnapped my dad and wanted money. She knew he was in a meeting. They caught them. It was someone who had done work at the house the week before.

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

That's crazy!!!

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

wow...that's nuts!

pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

Something very similar happened in my family, except they lost $2,500 because of it. Personally, I think my cousins father-in-law was nuts not to contact my cousins wife first to make sure my cousin was ok but read what happened, this was the email my aunt(my cousins Mom sent us to read).

"OMG....Paul was just scammed for 2500. He got a phone call that Darren was in an accident & he is fine but he hit a diplomats car. He said he's Darren's lawyer , & Darren is in court or jail & they need the money immediately to get him out. He told Paul how to send the money on line.
Paul then called Karen , who was shopping with Darren. He said to her " don't worry, I sent the money for Darren". Karen asked him what he was talking about , that Darren is right here.
I will NEVER answer my phone if I don't recognize the number.
How frightening it must have been for Paul. How wonderful he was to send the money to help!"

Message edited 8/13/2014 9:33:49 PM.

pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

That's terrifying!!

pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

This happened to me as well, they called my parents to say my husband was in an accident! It was awful, I filed a police report. But the cops said it has been happening for a very long time

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

That is INSANE!

pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

Even though it was an obvious scam, hearing something like that is terrifying and I may not have realized it at first either. So scary!!

pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

that is so scary

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

that happened to my grandma years ago. they called my poor 80 year old grandma and said they had her grandson Jason (my ex husband). she didn't understand how they would know his name. luckily she was smart enough to call me and knew it was a scam. these people are really @ssholes!

Re: pretty obvious scam but terrifying, so fyi

OMG – just reading that my stomach dropped! I don’t think I could have talked to them because I would have been in hysterics – even though it’s obviously a scam, I don’t think I would be able to realize it right away.

Maybe 12 years ago, I had sort of a similar call. It was probably about 2-3:00am (I did not have a cell phone at the time) but a call on my home phone someone asked for me, then proceeded to tell me that my friend was passed out in her car and they just called a number in her phone. I was trying to wake up and trying to figure out what friend they were talking about – I didn’t have any friends in my area, not within an hour or so – that would have my number in their phone so I was trying to figure out who it was. He wouldn’t tell me where they were and as I was trying to ask questions he started to say that he was feeling her up and basically just trying to make me think he was assaulting her. I was so scared b/c I didn’t know what I could do to help her. I think he hung up – or maybe I did. I called the police but since I dialed them, I couldn’t *69 to figure out the number (though I think maybe they told me it was blocked anyway.) They came out the next morning to take my statement but wasn’t really anything they could do. I just remember feeling so terrified! People really suck sometimes!!!