TIMMINS - Most people like to think they know a scammer when they hear one. Porcupine resident Peggy Bendell said she’d just been listening to a program on the radio about phone scammers when she received a strange phone call Friday morning. “I wanted to talk about it because I knew enough, yet I can see anyone getting suckered because I was almost suckered,” she explained. “What’s incredible is they know so much.” The person on the other end of the line was someone she knew well, her son’s friend, John (name changed for anonymity). That’s what she was told, anyway. “He told me he had been in a car accident. He was coming to an intersection and his phone had fallen, he reached for it and he went through a red light. That was the story. He said he had a broken nose, and that’s why it didn’t sound like him,” explained Bendell about the strange call. “He said the police took him in handcuffs because he wasn’t supposed to be on the phone. He said he had his lawyer there, and he had decided to call me. He said, ‘Listen, don’t tell anybody. I’ll tell them when I get out, I feel bad about this and I want to get it resolved.’ “For a few minutes, I was thinking he really needed some help.” It turned out the impostor said he needed $2,300 wired to him to get his lawyer fees paid and the charges dropped. “That’s when it really clicked,” said Bendell. “I was already suspicious, because I thumbed through the phonebook, and there was no lawyer by the name he told me. I played along with him, I got the name, the address, where the money was supposed to go, and he said he was going to call me back to make sure it was done.” When she hung up the phone, Bendell called the police. “They told me, ‘Yes, this is a scam,’” she said. “They said it is an ongoing case and they’re looking into it.” Then, Bendell did a little further investigating of her own, just to make sure. “I called John and he was back home, well and fine, playing with his daughter when I called him,” said Bendell laughing. “It definitely was not my friend who called me. And I called the police to just to confirm there was no John in jail there for having gotten into a car accident with a phone, and they said, ‘No we don’t.’ “I would never have sent the money, but I was believing the story. I know it’s been covered, but I just want to give another blast out there to people, because they know all about you, and they will sound true.”
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 04:55:42 +0000