A scammer stole several thousand dollars from an elderly woman after telling her that her grandson had been arrested.
The scammer, who claimed to be a Johnson County police officer, called a Greenwood woman Monday and told her that her grandson had been arrested after being found in a car with drugs and a gun. The woman was asked to go to Walmart and purchase $1,000 in gift cards and then read the serial numbers to him, a Greenwood Police Department report said.
The scammer convinced the woman to purchase a similar amount of gift cards several more times before she realized it was a scam, the report said.
Officers spoke with the Walmart manager, who told them that she had asked the woman about the purchases but had been told by the woman that it was a personal matter and that she knew what she was doing, the report said.
The gift cards had already been cashed before officers contacted Walmart, the report said.
