Canadian grandma outsmarts fraudsters not once, but twice! 

Well done. Grandma 2, Scammers 0

Scammers need to be held accountable properly. Fraud that involves the elderly or disabled should include a minimum of 10 years in prison.

Every family needs a "safe word" to protect themselves from scammers.

My Mom got a call from her “grandson” saying he needed money to bail out of jail. She has 15 grandsons, so she asked which grandson it was. They happened to randomly say a name that matched with one of my sons. She told him to call me (his mother) and ask her for help, he said he already did, and my Mom replied, “If your Mom won’t bail you out of jail, you deserve to be there”, then she hung up on him and immediately called me. So lucky my Mom caught on in time.

I had 2 grandson calls this past week. I don't even have children. So, nice try. 😉

I never answer the phone unless I recognize the number....I let it go to the answering machine or voice mail...

When I received a call from these fraudsters they began the conversation by saying hello grandad and I replied let me guess you are in jail and need money. They simply hung up.

While moving to a different state and buying a house I withdrew money for a deposit. The teller quietly asked if anyone told me to get this money. This has happened twice. The teller said they are instructed to ask.

Back in the 60’s my grandmother was nearly scammed out of her life savings. An alert teller, who knew my grandmother’s banking habits, alerted the manager to the large withdrawal of cash by grandma, he approached her & asked her about why she was withdrawing such a large amount of cash, she told it was “none of his business” the manager alerted the local police & then followed her to where just around the block 2 male scammers were waiting. The police were also watching & they stepped right in when the recognized the crooks. My grandmother was mortified, My Dad was called at work to go to police Station to get grandma.

Same thing happened to my mother in law, but the bank questioned her and made her call her grandson and then the police were contacted

Congratulations for kicking that scammer to the curb, Mabel! You’re an inspiration!

My neighbor is an 88 year old widow. Got scammed for $16 k exactly same way. Fell very ill also. So infuriating.

My friend received a call once from someone claiming to have kidnapped her son. Unfortunately for the caller, her son was sitting across from her when she took the call. She was able to send the phone number to police for tracking when she reported it.

Smart woman. The banks should really do more. Train their front line workers to be on a lookout for these scams instead of trying to upsale unecessary products

the taxi coming out is scary actually...

Proud of you grandma. You are the best.

It’s appalling that someone would try to defraud seniors.

Someone tried this with my father. They told him they were my son, he was in jail and needed $10,000 for bail. Funny thing is, my son was sitting next to my dad at the time and is the only grandchild. Dad played along for a couple of minutes then asked "how can you be in jail when you're sitting next to me?" The scammer hung up.

Mabel, don't feel sick about the situation - Feel PROUD and COCKY that you had your wits about you! Street-smart, tough lady I say!

As well as part of the 10 and 2 rule keep the local police/RCMP number by the phone and call that number and tell them what happened if you receive a call asking for money. Also for those who are in a situation to recognize it is fraud and have the capabilities to think quickly and clearly, there was a video about a grandmother who realized it was a fraud, told them she needed an hour to get the money, then called the police. The police came, one waited inside the house and one outside the house, and they arrested two fraudsters.

Smart woman!! What is my grandsons last name……perfection!!!

One of my grandmothers almost got scammed by fraudsters many, many years ago. The fraudsters were pretending to be both a police officer and a medical examiner and that her grandson (me) was in a major car accident in Montreal and needed $30,000.00 for surgery. My dad caught wind of this after the manager of the bank my grandmother banked at called him and told him about my grandmother trying to take out thirty grand. Thankfully we stopped her before she did something she would come to regret. Also for the record I have never been to Montreal in my entire life.

Fraudsters and degenerates got played by Mabel. Thank you Mabel. ❤

This exact same thing happened to my 84 year old Mum. The scammers told her my brother (her son) was in jail because he had hit a car with a child in it and the child was seriously injured. She was so upset but thankfully had the witts to text my brother while on the phone with the scammers. She literally gets calls like this weekly.

Bless her heart. Seeing that phone on the kitchen wall is everything. That "10 and 2 idea is great!"

SMART SMART WOMAN.

She’s a great example of how vigilance and smart thinking can keep you safe. I’m sorry she’s been victimized.

Rule of thumb, never pay anything because of a phone call Cops won't call you Lawyers send letters Debt Collections need to send you a letter before they call you

If they called her a cab they clearly know where she lives. That's a bit frightening for a woman her age.

Way to go grandma. Scammers are so evil. They called her a cab in hopes that she would get the money. I am so glad she listened to her gut feeling and did not go into the bank.

Don't mess with a grandma named Mabel!!

I told my Son that if he ever ends up in jail and he knows it's his fault...don't even bother calling ... don't do the crime, if you can't do the time.

My grandma has also received these calls, and it really upsets her. Just awful.

The scams being pulled on our elderly is unprecedented. There needs to be heavy prison time and fines for this.

She is the kind of grandma that would teach the grandchildren how to avoid scams instead of the usual opposite.

I never answer my phone,except to my children/relatives.Any one else can leave a message.The cop calls are the worse! I used to give for 'kids camps' but with everything so expensive I just can't anymore.When your polite and say maybe when things get better,they have the nerve to shame you.Nope,NOT happening with this senior.

Mabel's a smooth operator.

My bank sees this type of behavior on a regular basis. I live in a wealthy tourist town full of retirees. The bank is extremely familiar with every one of its regular customers- and their banking habits. The bank staff, including the managers, know all the current scams going on- and are also very close to the police station. They also regularly do free seminars with the police to keep seniors safe financially.

Proud of you, girl!❤❤❤. Shame on the scammers.

This is clearly someone who knows the family😢

Mable is one smart cookie

Thank goodness for call display; Any number I don't recognize, I don’t answer; they can leave a message.

Smart granny! Mopped the floor with those scammers.

Great job Mabel! 💚💚💚

I'm proud of this lady!

What a wonderfully smart lady👍👍👍🤩🤩🤩👍👍

Thank goodness she had her wits about her! I'm glad she didn't give them any money!

I would say there's a special place in hell for scammers, but they already live in India

My kid texted me they lost their phone. I don’t have any kids lol and even if i did they would be under 10.

I haven't seen a granny home like that in ages! It's amazing!

Nice to see the scammers did not win.

Luckily, my mother has her wits about her. She has received a very similar phone call. Once the 'story' was played out for her, she basically said; "ya right", & she just hung up. She did alert the police. Really, nothing can be done about it though.

Someone needs to manage her finances for her. Also, don't answer an unknown number...let them leave a message.

Don't mess with Miss Mabel! I'm so glad to see stories like this. Too many seniors are getting scammed.

This is someone close. What are the odds that it happened twice, grandma was mentioned and almost the same amount demanded? She is clearly being targeted.

Smart Lady!! Well done!!❤❤😂😂

He's right that conmen are professionals. They know exactly what to say at the right time. I was scammed out of $450 because they portrayed themselves as a service to computer safety and maintenance for the brand I had. Whenever I questioned them, they always had an answer. Eventually I had enough and didn't answer their calls, but they kept calling and calling and calling to the point it was harassment. Eventually I did answer and they told me they were gonna give a refund. I told them my computer was in the repair shop and they hung up immediately. It was a shame I lost $450 but I take it as a lesson that costed that much. Since then I've been EXTREMELY careful whenever talking to someone on the phone about things like this. It's also bad when they use phone numbers of your bank to trick you into giving out personal info, like your Social Insurance Number. I simply gave them the wrong one on purpose because I knew no business would ask or call for such things.

Telephone scammers motto is getting more obvious with their accents, I don't know why they keep doing this. Were all aware now.

I don’t even answer the phone unless I recognize the name or number

Bless her heart.

Be strong Mabel ! Your Canadian! Be strong ! Happy Easter Weekend , have a little nip clam your nerve down. Blessing Cheers 🇨🇦

The family should change her phone number. Now they have her phone number and her address. They need to work with the bank to controls on her bank account and let her know that so she can tell any future scammers she has no control over her money.

Those Mandarin photo fridge magnets are iconic ❤

Did you see that phone!!

Well, if it actually got to the point she can't manage the money, then a trustworthy family member will have too.

Glad she outsmarted them! ❤

Stop answering the phone

I had one of these calls on my Dad’s phone (he was on hospice). They identified themselves as his grandson who had an accident in Las Vegas while at a wedding there. Well that made no sense since grandson lives in Vegas 🙄

It's sad that some of lots of these seniors still get scammed

With our aging population, this is very valuable to many!

She was from an era where none of this happened or rarely did... everyone helped and trusted one another...

This Lady did so well, brilliant job

That fraud got pretty sophisticated. Someone tried that on my mother. Problem is it was for a grandson she was disgusted with. She called me, i explained it was a fraud, she said they knew his name, and address ect. I told her its a fraud. She finally called him and he said nope, he is ok. They create the false sense of urgency .

this happened to my 100 year old granmda as well. she knew better than to think I was in trouble with drugs. only thing she did wrong was mention my name to name

Don't take off those boxing gloves, girl. I'm in your corner.

I've gotten so many calls from my "grandson" claiming to be in one tight spot after another. I learned his voice, named him "Todd" and strung him along for a while. Finally Todd got a clue and is now leaving me alone. Little did he know that my real grandchildren have a special name for me, so he was a goner from the start. What a dumbbell.

Awesome sleuthing Mabel 🙏🏻

Easiest thing to do is to get caller ID. Banks, courts, FBI, police will never call you. Glad this grandmother questioned things and was able to avoid being scammed.

That happened to my mom about my older son. She hung up & called me. But it still scared her for a couple of days. Then my son called her, himself. This was over 25 yrs ago.

Why does she feel sick.. she's a smart cookie and outwitted the villians.. she's Mighty Mouse!

Whenever I get these calls, I enjoy wasting their time. If nothing else, I might delay them scamming someone like this.

You have no idea how many times the "border and customs agents " called threatening me. I wonder how many agents with Indian accents we are employing

I’m so glad she outsmarted the scammers

10 and 2 method. Smart. I will share that with my elderly parents. Bless Mabel and her family.

Usual suspects

I had a call like that, I went along with it for awhile finally told him I had no grandson, I don't know why but he hung up.

There should be a large, easy to read pamphlet with simple words produced by the bank, so when someone comes in elderly, or stressed, asking for a large sum of money, to then quickly explain to the person that a lot of fraud takes place now days and for them to read the pamphlet and THEN decide if they still want the money. When an elderly person goes to the bank to take out a large sum, the cashier has the power to look at the account, and it would be quick easy to tell if this person usually takes out large sums of money on a regular basis, or this person hasn't taken out more than 200 dollars cash in 10 years ... THEN, the cashier offers to educate the elderly person, has someone explain that there is a possibility of them being scammed. Even if there was one huge banner on the wall of the bank, so that the cashier could point it out to the person and ask them to read it to see if it pretains to them at the moment. . . Anything is better than nothing.

So very sad.

If you have a parent of this age, make their account a joint account with you as a cosigner. Set it up so they can only ever take out small amounts or write smaller checks without your approval.

My grandpa did the same thing like a month ago..... didn't get on the news for it though

Thank you

Same thing happened to my Nana. But she was very clever about it. The scammers called her and said “Grandma! I’ve been arrested and need bail money” and she says “I’m sorry, you must have the wrong number” and hangs up. She immediately saw through it because we call her “Nana”, not “Grandma”.

They should be found and jailed for the rest of their lives.

Do a power of attorney so they can't get scammed, then you won't have to worry.

love her step into the 80's style home.....she even has the phone. so cute

Dont answer the phone from strangers.

My FiL must have given scammers some money at some point because he passed away almost two years ago, we still have his phone, and we must get 8 calls a week on it from scammers trying various ploys. They are relentless.

If I got that call, I would've said let him sit in jail and have him call me himself! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Awesome job❤

They need to catch and lock up these con men.