October 9, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 19 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. Arboretum sets festival, events The Thiekle Arboretum has a full roster of activities planned for October beginning with its first Fall Festival benefit set for Sunday, Oct. 13. At noon, certified NIA instructor, Mary Jo Dervos will begin the festival with an hour long NIA fitness class. The class will be held in the parking lot at the Glen Rock Pool. NIA classes are performed to a wide variety of music styles, and offer a unique combination of 52 moves that correspond to the main areas of the body: the base, core, and upper extremities. These moves combine martial arts, dance, and healing arts. Visitors are invited to join Dervos for a new, fun, and creative path to health and well-being. Participants are encouraged to wear comfortable clothes and sneakers. The cost to attend the class is $10 and pro- ceeds will be donated to the Thielke Arboretum Environ- mental Education Building Fund. Festival events will continue at 1 p.m. at the arbore- tum located at 460 Doremus Avenue. Festival visitors may spend their time learning about backyard beekeeping, trout fishing, go on a scavenger hunt, stop for some cider and doughnuts, buy a handcrafted wooden bowl from arbore- tum wood in the Green Leaf Shop, and take an arboretum tour with tree expert Paul Mast. Entrance is by donation. Proceeds will benefit the Environmental Education Center Building Fund. Fall programs at the arboretum will continue on Satur- day, Oct. 19 with an Arboretum-A Walk in the Woods at 7:30 p.m. Participants will start the nighttime walk with a spooky story by professional storyteller Julie Della Torre. Families are reminded to bring flashlights for a very differ- ent kind of Saturday night in the neighborhood! The arboretum will hold its Spring Bulb Planting on Sunday, Oct. 20. Beginning at 1:30 p.m., volunteers will help plant 1,000 daffodils bulbs. Volunteers of all ages are needed for various related activities. Participants should bring gloves and gardening tools. The Thielke Arboretum, a fresh water wetland, is an 11-acre certified wildlife habitat that is open to the public from dawn to dusk 365 days a year. The property includes several well-maintained trails through the woods, a well- stocked fish pond, and over 100 different species of trees. For further information about programs, member infor- mation, and how to arrange a visit, call (201) 447-0452 or visit the Thielke Arboretum at www.glenrockarboretum. org. The Thielke Arboretum is maintained by The Friends of the Thielke Arboretum, Inc. Gold Star Mothers and several of the chapter’s members, Leslie Kruithof of the NJ State Elks Association Project Hope, numerous military veterans, and at least one Gold Star Mother. As an important adjunct to the ceremony, VFW Post 192 Commander Matt Bombace provided a Soldier’s Cross, which had a very special meaning to him and the other combat comrades in attendance. After a prayer by local clergy and then a brief introduc- tion and Pledge of Allegiance by Bob Paoli, Ridgewood’s American Legion Post 53 commander, Maria Bombace gave a heartfelt and moving prologue. Hauck spoke briefly and read several poignant poems. Donovan avowed that, as long as she is county executive, she will ensure that our military and those who sacrificed their lives for this coun- try will not be forgotten. The Ridgewood High School Project Interact students read the 32 names of those military service members in the North Jersey area who paid the ultimate price since approx- imately 2001 in the various conflicts in the Middle East. After each name was read, a luminaria was lit by a Boy Scout and a bell was tolled. A photo gallery of 154 military service members who gave their ultimate sacrifice was pro- vided by the Elks and displayed above the luminarias. To conclude the ceremony, American Legion Post 53 member Larry Hanlon played “Taps,” Jim Roth sang “Amazing Grace,” a clergyman offered a prayer, and Paoli thanked everyone for attending. (continued from page 5) commemorating the Gold Star Mothers in the North Jersey area. In 2011, Ridgewood resident Maria Bombace, mother of an Iraq combat Marine who is now commander of VFW Post 192 and another son currently serving in the U.S. Army, coordinated and conducted a ceremony in Ridgewood at Van Neste Park that has become the mainstay event in this area for Gold Star Mother’s Day. This year, approximately 1,000 luminarias graced the walkways in and around Van Neste Park. Prior to this ceremony, the officials from Ridgewood and Ho-Ho-Kus promulgated resolutions in their respective communities recognizing this occasion. In addition to the large turnout of the general public, in attendance at this year’s ceremony were local clergy members, Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn, Ridgewood Council- woman Gwenn Hauck and other council members, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Ridgewood High School students and representatives of Project Interact, Blue Star Mothers Chapter 3 of North Jersey President Marge Sietsma