AG Nixon is warning Missourians today - especially seniors - to be on the lookout for this scam. A central Missourian was almost tricked out of $8000 by someone claiming to be his grandson and needing money to get out of jail. The consumer went to the wire transfer station to send the money. Fortunately a station employee got suspicious and warned him that it could be a scam. He didn't send the money.

Apparently, some of these crooks get lucky, in that they have a voice that sounds like the grandchild of the people they're calling. I guess if you call enough people, you'll get lucky eventually.

As many scams do, this one involved a request for a wire transfer. That is often a red flag - scammers love wire transfers because they can be picked up almost anywhere in the world. In other words, if I convince you to wire money in my name, I can pick it up at any of the thousands of wire transfer stations across the globe.