‘Sophisticated’ phone scammers threaten Morris Twp. family

MORRIS TWP. – Most people know to be wary of phone scams, from callers attempting to obtain your personal information to threats that a relative is in a foreign prison and needs bail money.

But imagine being a mother, and receiving a call from a hostile party who says they have your son and will kill him if you don’t wire them money right away. And imagine what you would do if they knew his name, and knew precisely what he was wearing when you last saw him.

“Honest to God, there was a moment that I thought for sure (my son) was gone,” said a Morris Township mom, who recently recounted her family’s harrowing ordeal while being targeted by phone scammers police are describing as “unusually sophisticated.”

The family’s identity is being withheld for fears of its safety, but the mother and her two sons, identified here as Son A and Son B, were eager to share their experience in the hopes that the perpetrators will be caught before other victims are preyed upon.

Son A, 17, received the first call in the afternoon of July 27 while on a pizza run with a friend to nearby Lovey’s restaurant on West Hanover Avenue.

“I got a call from an unknown number, which I usually don’t pick up, but it was a 973 number so I thought it might be someone I knew,” Son A said.

A fast-talking man with a Spanish accent, Son A recalled, asked if he knew someone driving on a road he was unfamiliar with, but he immediately thought of his father who drives a lot during work. The caller seized on his reference to the father and immediately spun a tale that Son A’s dad had caused an accident with his nephew, breaking the nephew’s legs. Because they were “illegal immigrants” and wanted for murder in Puerto Rico, the caller said, they wanted money to pay for medical care without the police getting involved.

“In the beginning, they talked kind of normal, but when I started asking questions, they started to get louder, angrier and meaner,” Son A said. “They said ‘Get the money or we’ll blow your dad’s head off.’ They wanted $3,000. I told them I couldn’t get them any money because I was a kid. So they told me to just act normal, don’t go home, don’t call the cops, don’t talk to anyone, and not to hang up or answer any incoming calls. And I gave them my brother’s number because I couldn’t remember my mom’s number.”

Son A went to nearby Simon’s Park (in Morris Plains) and, as instructed, avoided contact with other people while he nervously awaited further instructions. Meanwhile, Son B, 19, received a call from the scammers on his cellphone.

“They were screaming and telling me something about (Son A),” Son B said. “I just gave the phone to my mom, who was there (at home).”

“I thought it was a police officer telling me (Son A) was in an accident,” she said. “My mind went from zero to a hundred in a second.”

The callers, yelling and cursing at her with a revised scenario — Son A had been in a car accident with them, had started an argument and they hit him in the head because he threatened to call the cops, she said.

They said they took Son A hostage — to “the projects” — and wanted her to drive to Walmart and send them money orders for $3,000.

“They told me to grab my debit card, grab my keys, to get in my car, don’t call the cops,” the mother said. “They wanted to know I was in my car, to beep the horn. I’m thinking maybe they’re around, and they want to know where exactly we’re at. Of course scam came to mind. But I never heard of one so bad as this one. There wasn’t enough time to think clearly, so I motioned to (Son B) to call 911.”

While the mother was still on the phone with the scammers, police arrived on the scene.

“(She) was frantically upset since we were not able to reach her son on his cell phone,” the Morris Township Police wrote in a report obtained by the Daily Record. “(She) turned her phone’s speaker on and I was able to hear the male voice. He appeared to have an accent and was very aggressive towards her.”

“They said that my mom was driving to Walmart to send the money and the plan was that they would tell her where I was so she could pick me up after it was over,” said Son A, who was obeying orders not to answer any other calls. “They asked me where I was and what I was wearing so she could spot me.”

At one point, the mother demanded to hear from her son, so they conferenced Son A into the call just long enough for her to hear Son A — still under the impression that his father was in danger — say “They have Pops!”

“They said he was wearing white and blue shorts and a red shirt, which was exactly what he was wearing,” she said. “At that point I think I just about collapsed.”

Son B then called his father (the parents are divorced), who was unaware of the situation but immediately responded to the home. With the police still investigating, and the family still unsure of Son A’s whereabouts, the father insisted on driving to Walmart and arranging for payment.

“People get upset when you’re talking about someone’s kid,” said Morris Township Det. Sgt. Brian Holick, one of the invesitgating officers. “It was a very hairy situation, especially when the people on the other side are saying ‘We have your son,’ and then when she wants to talk to him, all of a sudden he’s talking on the phone and you say ‘uh-oh.’ ”

Police then followed the father, who was outfitted with a wire, to Walmart, where undercover officers were waiting to identify any possible suspects nearby. But before any funds were wired, a patrol officer, following a “ping” on Son A’s cell phone, located him at Simon’s Park.

“The first time we traced (the scammer’s phone number), it came back to Indonesia and India, so we didn’t have any luck there,” Holick said. “It’s very hard to trace the number when they are using scramblers. They’re called spoof phone numbers.”

With all parties safe and accounted for, the family members were taken to police headquarters for a debriefing.

“The suspects that are doing this are very savvy in using technology, so they do make it sound real,” Holick said. “And that’s why we tell people the sooner you contact us, the sooner we can start gathering our information. If they inform us an hour after it happens, we’re behind the eight-ball.”

The incident is still under investigation, but the family is eager to alert the public that these clever criminals are still out there and well-equipped to attempt their scams on others.

“I wish I could have known for sure it was a scam while I was still on the phone because I would have lit into them,” the mother said. “But I want people to know of this potential scam, and to make them aware, and to tell their kids. I don’t know if it would have made a difference for us, because we didn’t know where (Son A) was. They had that going for them. But most times these can be squashed pretty easily. It’s important not to give these people any information. And to not pick up on phone numbers you don’t know.”

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-917-9242; wwesthoven@GannettNJ.com.