TRAVERSE CITY -- Betty Hubbell's heart jumped when she heard a sobbing voice on the phone begging for help.
Hubbell, a retired waitress, lives by herself in a home on Traverse City's south side. She was caught off guard in June when a man claiming to be a Canadian attorney called and said he needed $3,500 to free her jailed daughter-in-law.
The man handed the phone to a crying woman who said she was in custody in Ontario after she crashed her rental car while drunk. The woman identified herself as Becky, the real name of Hubbell's daughter-in-law, and urged Hubbell to rush out and wire the money.
Hubbell came close to sending every last dime of her savings, but doubts raised by Grand Traverse County Commission on Aging staffer Tracy Miller helped her to realize the ploy was a scam.
"She was a godsend, I'll tell you, she was really super," Hubbell, 76, said.
Miller, who serves as a homemaker aide for the agency, regularly assists elderly residents in the area. She visits with Hubbell about twice a month, and she's glad she could help.
"I can be kind of persistent," Miller said. "I'm glad I was there, because she probably would have (sent the money). She needed to get her daughter-in-law home."
Police are trying to track down those responsible and warned senior citizens to be wary of such scams, which are on the rise.
A clever ruse
The scammers called Hubbell on a Monday morning and urged her to send the money as soon as possible. If she didn't, they said, her daughter-in-law could be held in Canada indefinitely.
The female voice sounded eerily similar to her real daughter-in-law, Hubbell said.
"I swear even right now, the tone of the voice, I swear that was my daughter-in-law," she said. "That's spooky that that can happen, even though you're smart."
They gave Hubbell specific instructions: Go to a cash advance store on South Airport Road, get a pin number and send the cash. They told her not to contact her son because the situation was too embarrassing.
Hubbell didn't have all the money, but she dug through her savings and came up with a few thousand dollars.
"When they said $3,500, I said, 'God, I don't have that kind of money.' If I took every penny that I could get my hands on, I could come up with maybe $2,000," she said. "They would have liked $3,500, but they would settle for $2,000."
Enter Miller, who arrived at Hubbell's house to clean not long after Hubbell spoke with the scammers. Miller has known Hubbell for four years, and she could tell something was wrong.
"She was upset; I could tell she was uneasy," Miller said. "I said, 'What's going on, Betty?'"
Hubbell confided in Miller, who immediately was suspicious of the situation. But Miller said Hubbell was nearly certain her daughter-in-law was in trouble.
"She said, 'Tracy it was her, it was her calling me' ... she was convinced," Miller said. "She said, 'I've got to get her back.'"
Miller urged Hubbell to contact her son Bill, despite the scammers' request that she not do so. She did, but didn't fill him in on the situation. Instead, she obtained her daughter-in-law's cell phone number and tried to call her.
Her daughter-in-law didn't answer, and Miller had to head out to visit another client. When Miller came back a short time later, she encouraged Hubbell to try her daughter-in-law again. This time, Hubbell reached her and uncovered the ruse.
Reflecting on the incident, Hubbell sees several red flags. The scammers never used her son's name, and they weren't specific about where they were. But it's hard to think clearly when a loved one may be in trouble, she said.
"It's amazing how easily you can be pulled in. When it's your family, it can happen," Hubbell said. "You want to help them."
Miller only visits Hubbell twice a month, and Hubbell considers herself lucky that Miller arrived on the day the scammers called her. Otherwise, she would have turned over her savings.
"That would have been all the money I have, period. I would have been broke ... If it wouldn't have been for Tracy, I would have been out $2,000," Hubbell said.
A growing problem
Police are fielding a growing number of complaints about scam artists who target the elderly over the phone or through the mail. It's also not the first time they've heard the Canada story.
"They come back here once, maybe twice a week (with) the same story, a relative is in jail in Canada," Traverse City Police Capt. Brian Heffner said.
Hubbell isn't sure how the scammers knew she had a relative named Becky. Heffner said it's possible the con artists got the name over the Internet, though Hubbell also could at some point have been listed as an emergency contact for her daughter-in-law.
Sometimes the scammers also randomly guess a name and get lucky, Heffner said.
"That's what threw me," Hubbell said. "They knew."
The scam artists often truly do call from Canada, Heffner said. Sometimes they use the Internet to look up a nearby location where the would-be victim can wire money, and that may be what happened in the Hubbell incident.
"One of the common denominators is they ... find a wire transfer station that's near the residence and have that information when they call," he said.
It's not uncommon for the con artists to try to exploit family connections, officials said.
"(Betty) needed to get her daughter-in-law back from Canada, and she would have done anything to do that," Miller said. "When they prey on these people, they know that."
Georgia Durga, director of Grand Traverse County Commission on Aging, said seniors must always be wary of people who call and ask for money or personal information.
"The first thing is, if it sounds odd, it probably is odd," Durga said.
Durga said her office advises seniors to ask for a name and callback number when contacted by anyone soliciting money or info.
"That way you're not telling them no, and a lot of people have a hard time saying no," she said. "If it's legitimate, they will give you a name and phone number. If it's not, they'll just hang up."
Heffner said residents, senior or otherwise, need to be extremely careful about information they give out over the phone.
"The red flags are account numbers, personal information and wire transfers," he said.
