'I played the game': N.Y. grandmother leads police to attempted scammer

A grandmother out of New York state is being credited for using her instincts to beat an alleged scammer at his own game.

Jean Ebbert, a 73-year-old resident of the Long Island community of Seaford, N.Y., received a phone call recently from a person claiming to be her grandson.

The crying man said he had been drinking, got into an accident and needed thousands of dollars in order to get out of jail.

"I knew he was a real scammer," said Ebbert, who doesn't have a grandson old enough to drive. "I just knew he wasn't going to scam me."

A news release from the Nassau County Police Department in Long Island says the incident occurred on Jan. 20.

Police say along with the initial call, an unnamed female victim, since identified as Ebbert, received a second call from an unknown male claiming to be her grandson's lawyer and needing US$8,000 to post bail.

She also received a third call from an unknown male claiming to be the bail bondsman, local police say.

Ebbert decided to play along and agreed to meet the supposed bail bondsman at her house, to whom she would give $8,000 cash.

But the former 911 operator wouldn't be alone when that happened.

"So I played the game. And then I said to him, 'Listen, don't call your mother, she's gonna be mad. Let me handle this,'" Ebbert said.

When the man arrived and picked up his supposedly cash-filled envelope, which ended up being full of paper towels, two police officers were there to greet him.

Security camera footage from Ebbert's home shows the two officers rushing out her front door and pinning the suspect to the ground.

Joshua Estrella Gomez, 28, has since been charged with attempted grand larceny.

Seniors are too often the subject of scams, with a recent U.S. senate committee report noting that in 2020, grandparent scams were the fifth most reported type.

But in her attempt to avoid becoming a victim herself, Ebbert says she "played the game really well right from the beginning."