Grandparent Scam: What to Do

A voice on the phone says your grandchild is in trouble — a crash, an arrest, a hospital in another state — and needs money in the next hour. Take a breath, because that rush is the whole trick. The Federal Trade Commission’s advice for this exact situation is short: do not act immediately, hang up and call your grandchild on a number you already have, and never send cash, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or money transfers. Then report the call at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. If money has already gone out the door, contact your bank or the gift card company today — speed is the only thing that sometimes helps.

The Detailed Answer

This scam has a name because it follows a script. The FTC calls it a family emergency scam, and describes how it works plainly: “the caller lies, tries to scare you, and rushes you to pay so you don’t have time to think twice or check things out before you send money.”

The fear is real. The emergency is not. Everything below is about slowing the call down long enough to check.

The three steps, straight from the FTC

1. Resist the urge to act immediately — no matter how dramatic the story is. Nothing bad happens if you wait ten minutes. Real hospitals, real lawyers, and real police departments do not demand payment over the phone in the next hour.
2. Call or message your loved one who (supposedly) contacted you — even though the caller says not to. Use a number you know is right, not one the caller gives you. If you cannot reach your grandchild, call their parent, their roommate, or anyone else in the family.
3. Never send cash, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or money transfers. As the FTC puts it: once the scammer gets the money, it’s gone. Those four payment methods are the ones scammers ask for precisely because they are hard or impossible to reverse.

One more thing that helps: hang up first, then dial. Scammers sometimes keep you on a call and “transfer” you to a fake officer or lawyer. Ending the call yourself and dialing a number from your own contacts breaks that chain.

What the call usually sounds like

The FTC publishes an example to show the pattern. In their example, a caller claiming to be a grandson’s friend says the young man “was arrested last night and needs $500 for bail.” Then, in the same call, comes a second demand: “the police took Jon’s passport, so he’ll need another $700 to get it back.” The caller tells the grandparent not to tell Jon’s parents or anyone else, because Jon is embarrassed.

“Jon” is the FTC’s made-up example name, not a real case. But notice the three moving parts, because they show up again and again:

• A crisis you cannot verify — an arrest, a car accident, a hospital in another city, trouble at a border.
• A second ask. The first payment is rarely the last. There is always one more fee.
• A secrecy request. “Don’t tell Mom and Dad.” That line exists only to stop you from making the one phone call that would end the scam.

Sometimes the caller is a stranger claiming to be a lawyer, a bail bondsman, or a police officer. Sometimes the voice sounds exactly like your grandchild. A crying, panicked voice is also easy to mistake for someone you love — and scammers know it.

If you already sent money

Act the same day, and do not spend time feeling foolish. This scam fools careful, intelligent people every week; that is what it is engineered to do.

• Wire transfer or bank transfer: call your bank or the wire service (Western Union, MoneyGram) immediately and ask them to reverse it or stop the transfer.
• Gift cards: call the company that issued the card — the number is on the back — tell them it was used in a scam, and ask whether the funds can be frozen. Keep the card and the receipt.
• Cash sent by mail or courier: contact the shipper right away and ask them to stop delivery.
• Then report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and consider telling your local police department. A report will not usually get your money back, but it feeds the data investigators use.

The FTC keeps a page of these steps for every payment method at consumer.ftc.gov. Tell a family member too — not because you need permission, but because scammers often come back to the same phone number with a new story.

Related Questions

Can scammers really fake my grandchild’s voice?

Yes, and the FTC has warned about it. Voice-cloning tools can copy a person’s voice from a short clip of them speaking — the kind of clip that sits on a public social media video. That is why “I recognized the voice” is no longer proof of anything. Verify with a callback to a number you already have, every single time.

How did the caller know my grandchild’s name?

Usually from public information: social media posts, obituaries, school announcements, or data broker lists that pair relatives’ names together. Sometimes the caller simply opens with “Grandma, it’s me” and waits for you to supply the name yourself. If a caller asks “do you know who this is?”, do not guess — ask them to tell you. You can read more about how these calls are put together in our Scams & Safety guides.

Would a video call prove it’s really my grandchild?

A live video call on FaceTime, WhatsApp, Zoom, or Google Meet is harder to fake than a voice on the phone, and it is a reasonable extra check — but only if you start the call from your own contacts list, not from a link or number the caller sent. If your family already video chats regularly, you have a ready-made verification tool. Our Video Calls & Apps section walks through setting these up on a phone or tablet.

Should I just stop answering unknown numbers?

That is a reasonable habit. Let unfamiliar numbers go to voicemail — a genuine emergency will leave a message or reach you some other way, and the family will call from a number you recognize. Caller ID can be faked, so a number that looks local or looks like a police department is not a guarantee of anything.

What to Do Next

Five minutes of setup today makes this call much easier to handle later.

1. Agree on a family code word. Pick a word or question only your family would know, and agree that anyone asking for emergency money has to say it. Keep it off social media.
2. Save direct numbers. Put your grandchildren, their parents, and a trusted neighbor in your phone’s contacts by name, so a callback takes one tap.
3. Write the three steps on a card by the phone: wait, call back on a number I already have, never send cash, gift cards, crypto, or wire transfers.
4. Tell the rest of the family the plan. Say out loud that you may call to check a story, and that nobody should be offended. The secrecy request is the scam’s weak point — remove it in advance.
5. Report any attempt, even one you spotted, at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

If a call ever rattles you, call someone you trust before you call the number on your screen. A scam that depends on hurry falls apart the moment you have a second opinion.

Sources:

• FTC — Family Emergency Scams: Don’t Send Them Money — Source of the scam description, the ‘Jon’ example, and the three recommended steps quoted in the article.
• FTC — Scammers use AI to enhance their family emergency schemes — Supports the warning that a familiar-sounding voice can be cloned from a short audio clip.
• FTC — What To Do if You Were Scammed — Supports the payment-by-payment recovery steps for wire transfers, gift cards, and cash sent by mail.
• FTC — ReportFraud.ftc.gov — Official reporting portal named in the article.
• FCC — Grandparent Scams Get More Sophisticated — Background on caller ID spoofing, voice cloning, and using a family safe word.