Page 28 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • October 9, 2013 Why the Grandparent Scam works Brrrrring! “Hello, is this Mrs. Smith? It is? Madame, this is Sergeant Preston of the Northwest Mounted Police and his dog, Yukon King. We’re holding your grandson, Algernon, for a drunken driving accident in which an elderly Eskimo was injured and his igloo was destroyed. Unless we get $14,000, your grandson Algernon will not be represented by a lawyer at the hearing and may wind up in prison with hardened offenders until his trial sometime later in the century. Let me give you a number and you can send us the money immediately by Western Union.” Would you fall for this? If you had a grandson named Algernon and had never heard about the Grandparent Scam, you just might. The Grandparent Scam is one of the meanest scams out there, short of actual threats of violence. Get-rich- quick schemes, nasty as they are, target people who have ample money. So do the Nigerian inheritance scams. Some people even target their own relatives. One guy who was pulled in by the police some months ago told friends and relatives that, if he could get his hands on some quick money for real estate closings, he could pay them back with sizable interest in a matter of days or weeks. The properties he said he was closing on were not even for sale. A telephone call to a Realtor could have disclosed this information, but people tend to trust rela- tives and friends. The Grandparent Scam is remarkably common. Many instances have taken place in Ridgewood, and some in Glen Rock. Wyckoff is an especially notable target, despite the fact that police in all three towns responsibly post warnings urging people to call the local police first or talk to Algernon before they send any money. If the grandparents send the first increment of money, generally in the range of $10,000 to $20,000, the caller will hit them up for another increment of similar size for some other expense. This is not an Amazon herbal remedy scheme or a fake donation ploy for the widows and orphans of Navy SEALS. Those were despicable, but they were small change. The Grandparent Scam is for some big money. Shortly, the grandson turns up at home or back in the college dorm. The grandson reports that he had not been arrested, and the grandparents are out a very sizable amount of money. The scammers obviously target affluent towns like those in northwest Bergen County. Con artists gather information in advance. Social media outlets are a great place to find details about college-age kids, including whose grandparents live in wealthy communities. Once the phone call is made, the scammer has three psycho- logical edges over the hapless victim. First, honesty really is the best policy, at least in the long run. People who can afford to stay around here once the kids are out of school probably got that way by keep- ing their word and by running legal businesses or respon- sible behavior in their professions. Crooks often do well in the short term, but when the bottom falls out, they hit the skids rather quickly. Because the grandparents are honest, they expect that anyone who calls them knowing their name and posing as a law enforcement officer or attorney is also honest. Second, the love of children is a healthy natural instinct that comports rather well with the ability to make and save money. I recently saw a documentary on PBS in which polar bears, driven south of their usual range by global warming, showed up on the nesting grounds of migratory birds and started to eat the birds’ eggs and chicks. The adult birds attacked the polar bears, pecking their faces and their rumps until blood was visible. A skua has no real chance against a polar bear -- but the need to defend its offspring is stronger than fear, and stronger than logic. Healthy people feel the same way. Love them or hate them, people with sizable savings accounts and respectable addresses usually care about their children and grandchildren. Runaway parents rarely prosper in the long term. Third is the sinister secret: Mothers-in-law and daugh- ters-in-law almost never get along and almost never agree on the best way to raise kids. I have mentioned this to men and women who knew they would not be quoted, and they all agreed with me behind their spouses’ backs. People of the generation 10 years ahead of mine -- the grandparents of college-aged kids -- generally believe in a lot more discipline than people in the generation 10 years younger than mine. If a mother-in-law disagrees with her daughter-in-law’s tactics in raisings kids, and bluntly does not trust her daughter-in-law to raise the kids right, a kid’s drunk driving or drug arrest in a foreign country or a far-away state is just what the mother-in-law would expect. The chance to rush to the rescue not only allows the grandmother to validate her concerns about the daughter-in-law’s mothering skills, but also allows her to demonstrate the importance of thrift: “I can afford to bail Algernon out of prison because Hubby and I saved our money instead of spending it all like you did!” The ability to control both the healthy instinct to pro- tect the young and the more insidious instinct to show up a subconscious rival represents a real hurdle. Some people have trouble with it. Another sad factor also intervenes in this scam. Some older folks have such sporadic contact with their own grandchildren that they cannot recognize their voices, at least not in a moment of panic. Faced with the need to protect the grandchild, the subconscious desire to show up the in-law, and the inability to recognize the voice of a seldom-seen grandson under stress, the grandparents head for Western Union and the money flies off to the tropics and is not seen again. Commendably, so many of these cases have occurred in recent months that even Western Union has begun to warn people not to send the money. Police invariably warn the grandparents not to send the money unless they are absolutely sure the grandson is in custody. Most of the time, the grandson is safe, some- where far from the scene of the fraudulent non-existent drunk driving or drug arrest, and would be better off if the grandparents put the money in a trust fund for him. Accidents do happen, but phone calls from people you do not know describing drunk-driving collisions or drug arrests in foreign countries are not accidents: They are the harbingers of one of the meanest scams in the business. Letters to the Editor Recycling can help lower taxes Dear Editor: Last year, New Jersey celebrated the 25th Anniversary of its mandatory recycling law. Even though most of us in this area are aware of “recycling” and the efforts that our respective municipalities are putting out to encourage resi- dents to recycle more, the efforts to date have been less than stellar. If we could get across the idea that recycling not only is required and is good for the environment, but also that it saves taxpayers money, perhaps our rate of recycled materi- als would increase. For example, in 2010, an extra 364,000 tons of metal, plastic, glass, paper, and metals were not put into New Jersey landfills or incinerators. That resulted in a reduction of $26 million for disposal costs that towns did not have to spend and generated $45.5 million in sales of those materials that towns received. This “win-win” situation saved a total of $71.5 million for New Jersey residents. If all of us are really serious about lowering taxes in our towns, recycling is a simple device for doing it. Carole Holden, Chair Franklin Lakes Environmental Commission Franklin Lakes Urges support for Schwartz Dear Editor: As a Franklin Lakes resident and a 15-year member of the board of education, I believe it is a good time to reflect upon the years Kathie Schwartz was a member and pres- ident of the board. Kathie understands what needs to be accomplished and sets out to do exactly what is needed. Under her leadership, the board improved the educational experience of our children by supporting and approving new curriculum for both language arts and mathematics, continued the practice of hiring and producing an environ- ment which brought many excellent teachers to the district, expanded our preschool program, and remained fiscally responsible to our citizens. The board, working together under Kathie’s leadership, understood the fiscal constraints and worked tirelessly to ensure that the education of our most precious resource, our children, would not be compromised. Faced with reduc- tions in state aid in 2010-11 and a two percent spending cap, the board developed and executed a budget with an increase of only 1.56 percent. Additionally, the 2012-13 budget was almost flat, with no programs cut. In fact, the board contin- ued to improve programs and maintain the infrastructure. How was all this accomplished? By having a strong leader who pushed the board to make tough decisions, changing the medical benefits program, growing special education and preschool programs, and effectively using alternative revenue sources such as grants to restore and support positions such as the middle school library media specialist. We need to understand the difference strong leadership can make and move back down the path of excellence in education. On Election Day, choose experience, dedication, and fiscal responsibility and, most importantly, a person who will make decisions that will continue to make the educational system in Franklin Lakes a model for excel- lence in education. Vote Kathie Schwartz for your board of education. Joe Conti Franklin Lakes Supporting Christopoul for board of education Dear Editor: On Nov. 5, we will choose three members o the Frank- lin Lakes Board of Education. Our school system is one of the most important strengths of our town. The citizens who serve on our board of education are some of the main reasons our schools have been consistently excellent. The choices we make on Election Day will have a big impact on our school system for the next three years. I am writing to recommend Christine Christopoul be reelected to another term to the board of education. I met Christine through our daughters, who are friends, but got to know her when we served together on the Franklin Lakes Education Foundation and the Franklin Lakes Recreation Committee. Christine Christopoul has risen to leadership positions in many volunteer organizations, working tirelessly for the youth of Franklin Lakes. Christine has been a Girl Scout Leader for over a decade, PTA president, president of the Franklin Lakes Education Foundation, and a member of the Franklin Lakes Recreation Committee and Franklin Lakes Recreation Foundation. In addition to those volunteer activities, and raising her wonderful family, Christine has also served on the Frank- lin Lakes Board of Education. The work begun during the past three years is not finished, and on Nov. 5, I will be voting for Christine Christopoul, so she can finish the job begun in her first term. I urge you to consider supporting Christine Christopoul for the Franklin Lakes Board of Education on Nov. 5. Michael LaPorte Franklin Lakes Winton weighs in Dear Editor: In my previous letter to the editor on global warming I suggested that your readers check out George White’s definitive review of the science of climate change, “CO2 (continued on page 29)