A phone scam that targets grandparents now has a new twist according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. The scam has been around Iowa since at least 2008 but recently there has been a new twist. Scammers call a victim on the phone and pose as a grandchild saying they have been in an accident, hospitalized, jailed, or in a foreign country. They falsely say they need the grandparent to send them money for help.

The new twist is that now the scammers are involving couriers to go to homes to retrieve money. Sometimes the scammers use details about the grandchildren taken from social media, others will team up with scammers who pretend to be a doctor or law enforcement officer. I

f you get a phone call similar to this you should verify the person’s identity, resist the urge to act quickly or secretly, and contact a trusted family member to check out the story. If you’ve had such a scam phone call, report it to local law enforcement. They advise to not send money, do not answer the door unless you know the person, and file a complaint with law enforcement.