Princeton Township police say they may try to subpoena Western Union in relation to incidents in which someone pretended to be the victims’ grandson and tried to scam them out of money over the telephone.

   In each case, someone claiming to be a victim’s grandson called and asked them to wire them money to Canada, where they had been in a car accident. The most recent incident Oct. 21, occurred the same day as a similar one in Plainsboro.

   In Princeton, a man was scammed out of almost $3,000 after he received a telephone call at 9:30 a.m. that day from someone who identified himself as his 23-year-old grandson.

   The impersonator asked the victim to send $2,800 via Western Union to Canada because he had been charged there with drunken driving and had been involved in a motor vehicle accident. The grandson claimed he needed $2,000 to pay for damages to a vehicle he rented from Avis and another $800 for court and attorney costs.

   The victim told police that at 11:18 a.m. he went to the Rite Aid in the Princeton Shopping Center and sent $2,800 to Quebec, Canada. The victim later spoke to his grandson, who told him he was not in Canada, but attending college in New Jersey.

   In Plainsboro, a Sayre Drive resident reported receiving a call from someone claiming to be his grandson. The grandson said he crashed his rental car while in Canada for a wedding. The caller requested that $4,000 be wired via Western Union to pay for the damage of the rental car. Police said no money was sent in this case.

   Princeton Township police Detective Sgt. Ernie Silagyi said a resident reported a similar incident August, but the transaction was stopped before the wire transfer went through.

   He said investigating cases such as these can be difficult, but is made slightly easier when money is actually transferred.

   ”It becomes difficult,” he said. “There is only one thing we can do, that is subpoena Western Union and find out who picked it up, when and where.”

   While he hasn’t seen the grandson scam yet, Jim Scott, chief of economic crimes at the Mercer County prosecutor’s office, agreed.

   ”Once they get up to Canada, what ends up happening is that (the accounts) are in a false name, they use a false ID and you’re never going to be able to track them down,” he said.

   Kristin Kelly, spokeswoman for Western Union in Denver, said the company is aware of a variety of scams, including the grandson scam, and often works with law enforcement in their investigations.

   ”We have heard of this scam. It comes around once in a while, but we have a lot of procedures in place to protect consumers against fraud,” she said. “This (scam) is a little different because a lot of our efforts include asking the person who sent the money if they know the person.”

   She said the best way to avoid falling prey to telephone, e-mail and other scams is to not send money to anyone you don’t know or without confirming the identity of the person.

   While it is difficult to monitor every transaction that comes across their desk, Western Union does have simple procedures in place to help fight scams. In addition, Western Union agents are authorized to deny transactions to customers who they think are being victimized.

   ”All of our agents who are in major locations, places like grocery stores, have been trained to ask questions like what they’re sending the money for, to ask what the purpose of sending the money is, so we can avoid this type of thing.

   ”An agent can say, ‘That’s a scam and you shouldn’t send money for that.’ They’re allowed to not allow people to send money. Our agents have said sorry, were not going to allow you to send money.”

   On the receiving end of many of these scams are the scammers themselves, who often have to meet certain requirements in order to pick up the money. Personal information such as a name, how much is being sent, and from where it is coming are common requirements. Western Union also has separate requirements for areas that are known to have a high rate of this type of criminal activity, such as requiring customers to have the 10-digit control number and ID.

   While unfamiliar with the grandson scam, Mr. Scott said many scams in recent years seem to be originating from Canada.

   ”Anything where it is an unusual circumstance and where it’s coming from Canada, I would be very concerned,” he said. “We’re seeing a variety of Canadian based scams. The big ones are the lottery scams and the check scam, where they’ll send a check, have the person cash the check, keep some of the proceeds and send the rest to Canada.”

   He said that the checks are usually bad and the victim ends up being responsible for the entire amount, including what was sent send to the criminals.

   Mr. Scott said that one way to stay safe is to keep your personal information to yourself.

   ”I think it’s critical to keep all personal information as closely held as possible. You never want to give out information like your mother’s maiden name or family information to people you don’t know,” he said. “They use identifying information to scam you and they use it in a variety of different ways. It’s very difficult to stay in front of these thieves, but they are out there and they’re trying to troll for information as best they can.”

jsaccenti

@centraljersey.com. 