At least nine New Jersey residents had money stolen in a nationwide “grandparent scam” that defrauded hundreds of people out of millions of dollars, federal authorities allege.
Sixteen people have been charged in connection with the scheme in which people tricked their victims into believing their grandchildren had been arrested following a car accident and needed money, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
In reality, there were no accidents and no grandchildren were arrested.
Eleven men from the Dominican Republic ranging in age from 24 to 59 are charged in a 19-count indictment with mail and wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering. Only four are in custody, officials said.
In addition, five New York City residents ranging in age from 21 to 43 are charged with wire fraud conspiracy during another alleged ruse that ran from January 2019 to December 2023.
Alleged victims from New Jersey reside in Lindenwold, Paterson, Toms River, East Brunswick, Williamstown, Teaneck, Warren in Somerset County, and Hamilton in Mercer County, according to court papers. Other victims are from New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
Some victims were duped out of tens of thousands of dollars, authorities said.
A first group of callers knows as “openers” posed as the victims’ grandchildren and used technology to make it appear they were placing phone calls from the United States. Later, “closers” impersonated police officers, defense attorneys or court employees to secure the money, prosecutors allege.
Victims were either told to mail cash, send funds by an app or wait for a courier to come to their home to pick up money, authorities said.
The victims from New Jersey who were ordered to mail money were instructed to send it to either: East Orange; Reading, Pennsylvania; or Cleveland, Ohio, charging documents state. Some New Jersey victims were directed to use a messaging app to forward money to the Dominican Republic.
Though the thieves varied their stories, a commonly used angle involved the scammers telling grandparents that a woman who was in the crash with their grandchildren was pregnant and had suffered a miscarriage, authorities said.
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Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com.
