Scammers Pretending To Be Family Calling Twin Falls Residents

I know of at least two people who received the same call, pretty much verbatim. If you get a call from a family member that sounds strange and asking for money make sure you hang up. These scammers are trying to get you to panic and act without thinking clearly.

For this caller let's say they called the grandparents and are pretending to be their grandson "Paul". The phone calls we received went a little something like this:

Fake Paul: "Grandma, I am in trouble I need your help"

Grandma: "What who is this?"

Fake Paul: "It's your grandson Paul. I messed up. I got a DUI and crashed my vehicle. I broke my nose and sound horrible. I am in jail and I need 10 thousand dollars to get out of jail."

Grandma: "Oh no are you ok? I don't have 10 thousand dollars."

Fake Paul: "That's ok, my lawyer said he can negotiate it down to $8 thousand, do you have that?"

At some point, thankfully, the two people who this fake person called realized something was fishy and did not send them any money. At one point the fake Paul actually pretended to be his own lawyer which was a dead give away because, hello, he can't be two people.

Anyway, if you get a call like this please don't fall for it. If you are concerned, hang up and call the person they are pretending to be, in this case the real Paul, to check on them. At that point it will become clear what is real and what is fake.