Car-crash fraud scheme again targets local residents

MONTROSE — Elaine Bindel was shaken, but not taken. Still, she says she and her husband, Irvin, nearly fell for a sophisticated scam and she wanted the public warned.

Bindel received a phone call from a man claiming to be her adult grandson, who lives in Littleton. The man said he’d been arrested in Canada after a car crash because he’d been drinking.

A second man, claiming to be his attorney, called too, to corroborate the story. He told Bindel her grandson would need $3,400 to pay for damages to a rental vehicle and ensure the alcohol charge didn’t go on his record.

Bindel said the first call came from Calgary, Alberta. The man pretending to be her grandson spoke a little strangely, but when she asked why, he said he had a bad cold.

“I would’ve sworn it was Chase (grandson),” she said Thursday, shortly after making a police report on the incident.

The “grandson” said he was calling Bindel because he was embarrassed and did not want his mother to find out about the arrest. He said he had money back at home with which he could reimburse her.

Bindel told him she didn’t have that kind of money immediately available, but would call another family member to see if she could help. The caller discouraged her from doing that. He said his attorney, “Jeffrey Waxman,” would be calling.

“What threw me is, he said it was Chase,” Bindel said.

The faux grandson also had a believable story: that he was in Canada on a fishing trip. “He loves to fish. It all made sense to me,” she said.

“Waxman” then called the Bindels and told them to send the cash via a MoneyGram at Wal-Mart. “I go crazy trying to get $3,500 (for the MoneyGram and fees),” Bindel recounted. “Everything sounded so real, like it could be. This one just threw me.”

The Bindels got as far as the Wal-Mart counter, with the money, where alert customer service specialists familiar with the scam saved the day.

“She’s a savior,” Irvin Bindel said of a representative he identified as Linda.

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