Granny Scam Works Again -- This Time for $5,100

Sigh. This almost hurts too much to write about. If you read us you know about our campaign to inform caregivers and relatives and seniors about a particularly insidious scam aimed at the elderly. Well, the con men have done it again.

Moraga police were dispatched to an address on Sullivan Drive on May 4 and contacted a pair of grandparents who had just become the latest victims of the so-called ""

Officers determined that someone posing as the couple's grandson contacted them by phone and convinced them he was in trouble -- in Canada -- and that he needed them to send money via Western Union to a location there or he would never see the light of day.

Another sigh. The kindly couple did as they were asked, wiring $5,100 to an untraceable address above our Northern Border. Then, in an example of how interconnected these cons have become, another con man called pretending to be a Canadian police officer who for some inexplicable reason required additional money be wired -- this time to an address in Mexico -- for "court disposition fees."

This time, luckily, the light dawned and the couple contacted police.

People, please, spread the word. We hate hearing about these stories, we really do.