Police in San Francisco today warned of an Internet scam involving the popular social networking site Facebook that targets the families of U.S. military personnel.
San Francisco police spokeswoman Sgt. Lyn Tomioka said the FBI had alerted them to the scam, though she added that no specific cases have been reported in San Francisco.
According to the FBI, the scammers have identified the grandparents of military personnel through the soldiers’ Facebook pages, and then posed as the grandchild returning home from duty.
The scammer tells the grandparent not to let his parents know of the return because it’s a surprise, but later claims to be stranded after a friend’s car broke down.
The scammer then asks the grandparent to wire them money, in some cases thousands of dollars, in order to repair the car.
