Canadian Con Men and Good-hearted Grandparents

"Danny," she asked, "is that you?"

"Yes, it's Danny," the caller answered.

Danny, as it turned out, had gotten himself into a bit of trouble. The previous night he'd purchased a plane ticket and flown to Toronto to meet up with a few friends. After an eventful evening in the city's bars, he'd been arrested on a DUI charge while driving to his hotel in a rental car.

"I need $3,000 to pay the fine," Danny said. "Otherwise, they're going to put me in jail. I don't want to go to jail."

My grandmother was astounded. Never had I, Danny, been in this type of trouble before. It was the first time any of her grandkids had been threatened with jail time. I'd recently graduated from a college north of the border, in Montreal, and while I had never been to Toronto, it didn't seem like much of a stretch to my grandmother that I might have friends out there I'd like to visit.

My grandmother hung up the phone and gave her husband, my grandfather, a call, asking him to come home quickly. When he got to the house they received a second call from Danny, asking whether they had sent the money yet.

"What the heck are you doing in Toronto?" My grandfather asked.
"I've got to go, the minutes on my phone are running out," Danny answered, and hung up the phone.

Both of my grandparents were thrown, but with one of their grandkids in trouble they faithfully sprung into action. My grandfather made a trip to Wal-Mart, where he arranged for a money-gram of $3,000 to be sent across the border to set me free.

The employees at Wal-Mart were the first ones to suspect foul play. They told my grandfather they'd heard similar stories as of late, where scammers would try and trick people into sending money across the border. They advised him to put a hold on the transfer since the money would be non-refundable, which my grandfather did.

"Don't tell anyone about this," the caller had told my grandmother regarding his DUI charge and the $3,000 fine. "I want to tell them myself, when I get home." My grandmother, being the good-hearted woman that she is, complied.

Which is why it wasn't until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, five hours after the first phone call, that she thought to give my mother a call and cautiously ask if she knew where I was.

"Home, I think. Why?" My mother asked her.

"You're sure he's not in Toronto for the weekend?"

I wasn't in Toronto for the weekend. In fact, I was busy having a rather boring, mundane, and honestly enjoyable day back home. I'd woken up a little early (but not too early) to work on an article for the paper due later that day, watched a bit of TV, and helped myself to a slice of leftover pizza by lunch time. Hum-drum and drab, business as usual. The phone rang.

"Are you in Toronto?" My mother asked.

"No," I answered, confused. "Why?"

Moments later I was on the phone with my grandparents, who were relieved to hear I
wasn't in danger of being thrown into a foreign jail cell. My grandfather hopped in his car and trekked back to Wal-Mart, where he was able to cancel the money-gram in time, thanks to the hold the employees had convinced him to put on the transfer.   

My grandparents received one more phone call after that. The caller asked if the money was on its way, and my grandmother answered no, because she now knew the caller was trying to scam her. The man, perhaps sensing a lost cause, tried one last tactic.

"I know where Danny lives," he said to my grandmother, "and I'm on my way to his house right now." An idle threat, but my grandmother asked that I lock the door to my house just in case.

We contacted the police after all had been settled, who were as helpful as they could be considering the situation. The good news and bad - no money had been stolen (a thank you to Wal-Mart is in order, a phrase which frankly I'd never thought I'd have cause to say), but this also meant no real crime had been committed. The officer went on to tell us that he'd heard of these kinds of scams happening before. The money is typically sent across the border because once it's crossed, it's almost impossible to trace. Relatives of mine in Toronto later relayed to my grandparents that such scams have been rather rampant as of late in their city, with a recent news report in the local papers warning of just such ploys.
Me, I discovered (although I had previously suspected as much) just how much my grandparents loved me, and how far they were willing to go to help me out. All's well that ends well in our case, but beware.  During this holiday season, make sure the ones you love don't fall victim to the scammers and the con men looking for a way to make a quick buck, playing on the heartstrings of the good-hearted and susceptible. The Internet is a ready source of information, where all sorts of personal data - phone numbers, names, relations and addresses can all be pulled by the clever scam artist. So before you send that bail money across the border, make sure the person on the other end of the line is really the person you love.