Hello /r/personalfinance!
I don't usually post in here, but at the moment I'm in need of some advice.
As of yesterday (around 5 PM PST) I received a call that went directly to my voicemail. My sister informed me that my grandfather, who is 92 but still incredibly with it, had received a spam call and transferred 30,000 dollars into a Chase Bank account in New York state. She told me that a woman who claimed to be named Emma was an attorney in the state of New York and that my cousin (he is a 24-year-old undergraduate student attending a northern California state university) had been involved in a hit and run and needed 30,000 dollars in bail sent to the aforementioned account. My grandfather apparently transferred the money prior to contacting my sister or aunt and waited a day prior to telling them. I'd like to know from you guys what my options are to retrieve the money?
Alternatively and this might just be from watching too many heist movies: My sister seemed to have reported this to the website personally 17 or so hours prior to calling me. In addition to that, the number she listed seems to not have a ton of these reports, with most of them oddly centering around where my sister and aunt live, rather than my grandfather (from 3 calls in the Sacramento area to a single call to an old man in Hesperia CA). It just all seems odd to me. In addition to this, my cousin's facebook page has no link at all to my grandfather; he is not listed as a friend nor a family member. My grandfather's page has no phone number listed. How would they have figured the relation between the two enough to form the scam scenario? My sister refuses to give me additional information about the bank account that this was transferred into as well, the only way I found the number she was claiming was from googling the name she mentioned.
I'd amazingly appreciate it if you can tell me if you think the situation is merely a scam on the elderly or if there's more going on there. If that doesn't fit, I'd like to know the steps in retrieving or filing an issue regarding the money being taken from him.
I appreciate any advice you can give, thank you so much.
EDIT: Thank you guys, I suppose I just need to deal with the loss and make sure he is okay with it, I know it can't be easy being tricked into something especially when you're older. I appreciate it all!
Submitted March 27, 2019 at 07:36PM by Call_Dem_Cops https://ift.tt/2uuQZob
