My father-in-law got scammed this week by someone using a well-known narrative - cops says grandson in jail on drug charges, signed a non-disclosure agreement so his parents won't know, you're his only chance at bail, otherwise he'll have to stay in jail - with the addition of jail has Covid19 infection as a twist on leverage. The narrative is just vague enough that actual family dynamics can be transposed into it by the person who gets called. My father-in-law is convinced it is someone who knows his grandson, but when pressed for details, the scammer never said his name, never identified his mother or father by name, nor where they lived or even where the supposed jail was, etc. But my father-in-law is not well, has a heart that will kill him eventually, myriad of medications, his wife is a very good caregiver but not good at questioning authority, and my father-in-law hates his grandson's father, so his ability to sort out this situation is not great. $23,000 is gone, but fortunately he called my wife and asked her if she knew anything about our nephew just before he sent more money so she stopped that, called the cops, called the bank, called the insurance company.

The crazy part was that he was on the landline with the scammers while he was talking to my wife on his cellphone. When she realized he was talking to them and to her, she screamed at him to hang up the phone, but their hooks were so solidly set in his brain that she couldn't get him to stop talking to them and hang up! Finally his wife unplugged the phone. What a f*cking mess.

So beware this is out there. If you have older parents and kids and this narrative would fit no matter how tenuously, have a conversation with them all so they know to check in if anyone calls to say so and so has been arrested. Here's more detail on the scam from AARP.

Don't Fall Victim to the Grandparents Scam