Nov 25, 2014 3 min read

A Taylortown couple received a shock Tuesday morning when they received a telephone call from someone who claimed to be their grandson and said he was in a car crash and needed help.

The help the person said he needed, said Ron Dusenberry, was to have $2,000 wired to relatives of the person driving the vehicle he crashed into at an intersection.

The telephone call proved to be a scam that was only revealed when Dusenberry continued to ask questions and became more and more suspicious.

“I just want people to know this is going on,” he said. “Maybe it will save somebody from really getting scammed.”

Dusenberry said his wife answered the phone about 9 or 10 a.m. and first heard the story. She became upset, so he took the phone.

A man who said he was Ronnie, his grandson, told him he ran a red light at an intersection while talking on his cellphone and hit another vehicle. He said he had a broken nose and other injuries and was at the courthouse.

Dusenberry said the man, who didn’t sound like his grandson and seemed to have a Canadian accent, asked him not to call his parents because he didn’t want to upset them. He asked Dusenberry to talk to his lawyer.

Another man took the phone and said his grandson crashed into a car driven by a family on vacation from Hondurus. They are “nice people,” the man said, and wouldn’t press charges but want money for damage to their rented vehicle.

He told Dusenberry if he could wire $2,000 to the family that would resolve the matter.

Dusenberry said he remembered hearing about scams like this in the news and began questioning the attorney. The attorney told him he was at the courthouse in Waynesburg and gave an address for his office, a street Dusenberry wasn’t familiar with.

When Dusenberry continue to question the man about the address, the man abruptly hung up.

Dusenberry said he was surprised someone was able to obtain information about his grandson to pretend to be him. He said he contacted police but they said there was nothing they could do without a number or address. No telephone number came up on his caller identification when his wife answered the call.

Dusenberry said the call really upset his wife, and he doesn’t know what she might have done if he wasn’t there. “This is a horrible thing to do to a family,” he said. “It was really upsetting.”

He said he only hopes his experience will make others aware of these types of scams. “I only hope it helps somebody,” he said.