To the Editor:

Thank you for publishing the column by AARP President Jim Palmquist on advising grandparents to beware of scams targeting them [East Penn Press, Aug. 26]. I hope every grandparent reads his column.

A year ago, my husband and I were the recipients of a phone call from someone who said he was our grandson. He said our grandson’s name and said the reason it didn’t sound like him was because he had a broken nose caused by an accident. He said he was in jail. He said he had gone through a red light because he leaned down to retrieve his cell phone and had crashed into another car. I asked him whether he had called his mother. He said he had tried but was unable to reach her. He asked that we not inform his mother since he wanted to do it himself. Then he said his lawyer wanted to talk with us.

I handed the phone to my husband and whispered that ‘I think it’s a scam.’ The lawyer said we needed to send money immediately because he was certain our grandson would be found guilty and he could take care of all the details so he wouldn’t need to stay in jail. When my husband asked the condition of the car and the name of the insurance company, the lawyer hung up.

We immediately called our daughter (our grandson’s mother) and she said our grandson was okay and the car was okay. Although we had not been fooled into sending money, the phone call was still extremely disturbing to us. We had to hear our grandson’s voice to help allay our fears.

And, that wasn’t the only call. We were victims of another similar phone call about six months later but we, now the wiser, hung up immediately.

I informed the police of the scam but since I had no phone number to give to them, there is nothing much that could be done. Although I did ask that the type of scam be publicized so people become aware.

Thank you to AARP for promoting the details of the scam and listing techniques to employ to keep from being a victim.

Corrine Durdock

Emmaus