PORTLAND — The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office is warning residents about a telephone scam that preys on people’s concern for their loved ones and that is making the rounds in southern Maine.
Sheriff Kevin Joyce said that the scam cost a Harpswell resident $7,000 that was wired to Haiti to help a relative who, it turns out, was not in Haiti.
In February, a woman in Gray fell for a similar ruse and sent $2,500 to Madrid, Spain because she thought her grandson had been in a car accident.
“If you receive a call or email from someone claiming to know you and asking for help … check and confirm that it’s legitimate before you send any money,” Joyce said in a press release.
In Saturday’s case, the man received a call from two men who said they were with the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and that the man’s grandson had been arrested. The man spoke to a person who sounded like his grandson and who said he needed money for attorney’s fees and bail.
After wiring the money, the man learned he had been a victim.
For more information about recent scams, go to the Maine Attorney General’s website.
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