Grandson or grand scam?

The thought of his grandson sitting in jail somewhere in Toronto didn't sit well with former attorney and judge Robert Gustaveson.

So the 81-year-old Farmington man quickly made his way to a nearby Wal-Mart on Thursday morning to wire $2,900 cash for his grandson's bail.

"It was real concerning," Gustaveson said.

Refusing money to a distressed grandchild isn't something grandparents are exactly hard-wired to do. They're openhanded givers by default, programmed to slip grandkids cash on any occasion like a sort of benevolent reflex.

But it's exactly that kind of affectionate impulse that is fueling what's been nationally coined as the "grandparents scam."

Swindlers are calling grandparent-aged folks across the United States and posing as one of their grandchildren in need of emergency cash.

The scam's not a new one, but it has developed in sophistication over the years.

Scammers used to randomly call the elderly and cunningly phish for useful information by jovially asking grandpa to guess which grandkid they are and what kind of trouble they're in.

If the con artist was lucky, talented or both, he could paint a convincing enough picture with the small palette of information from the chitchat, and grandparents would wire money by the thousands in a hurry.

These days, scammers don't have to phish for authenticating facts in fleeting small talk. Information they need to endorse their false identity is now already amply provided on Internet family blogs and genealogy sites.

"That's what got me," Gustaveson told the Deseret News a few hours after his supposed "grandson" called. "That's how he got me. He knew everything. Even about what little Jack's up to and what's been going on with the family."

The caller asked Gustaveson to promise not to call his parents "because he said he was so terribly embarrassed about being arrested for drunk driving," Gustaveson said. "That was the weird thing. My grandson doesn't drink."

But there was no time for details; Gustaveson was told the phone card was "running out."

The story about taking a quick trip to Canada to visit friends also sounded strange, he said. "But it sounded possible."